ADANA, Turkey — A powerful new earthquake shook southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday evening, spreading panic among survivors two weeks after a powerful double tremor nearby destroyed more than 100,000 buildings, killed more than 46,000 people and left more than a million homeless.
The 6.3-magnitude quake struck near the town of Uzunbag in Turkey’s Hatay Province just after 5 p.m. local time, according to the United States Geological Survey. The same province suffered widespread damage in the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck before dawn on Feb. 6, followed by a powerful 7.5-magnitude aftershock a few hours later.
The shaking on Monday spread terror across the quake zone, where many people, traumatized by the earlier disaster, are staying in tents and sleeping in their cars because they remain too scared to to go inside any buildings.
It was not immediately clear whether the new quake had caused any structures to collapse in the already stricken area or whether it had killed anyone.
At the Sheraton hotel in the city of Adana, where a number of buildings had collapsed in the initial quake, families crammed into elevators with their luggage to evacuate the building.
One woman suppressed sobs, trying to reach someone on her phone. Another guest began calling family members, urging them to leave the building.
“How will I ever go back to my building,” one woman muttered.
“I’m trembling. We are all traumatized,” said Asu Askit, the wife of the hotel’s owner. “I think I will stay in my car tonight.”
The authorities in Turkey warned residents of the quake zone to stay away from damaged structures, and the country’s national disaster management organization warned people in a tweet to stay away from Mediterranean coastline, fearing that the sea level could rise as much as a half meter.
Serkan Topal, a Turkish lawmaker who was in Hatay during Monday’s earthquake, told Turkey’s Halk TV, “I am afraid there are casualties,” without specifying if he meant dead or wounded.
The new quake could exacerbate the challenge of providing shelter to survivors still in the area, he said.
“Now, we will need even more tents even more,” he said. “After this evening’s quake, no one will enter their houses. We need tents, tents.”
Hatay’s governor, Rahmi Dogan, told the state-run Anadolu news agency that the authorities were scanning the city for possible destruction and that residents had appealed for help.
“We kindly ask all of our citizens to stay away from damaged buildings and follow our team’s warnings,” Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter.
Across the border in Syria, some buildings that had been damaged in the first earthquake collapsed after the new quake on Monday, said Muneer Mustafa, the deputy chief of the White Helmets, a rescue organization. Some minor injuries were reported and rescue teams were being deployed to assess the damage, he said.
The newly collapsed buildings were in already hard-hit areas in northwestern Syria, including in the towns of Jindaris and Harem.
Elsewhere in Syria, medics reported injuries from falling trees and residents being rushed to hospitals after fainting or suffering heart attacks.
In the city of Aleppo, six people were hospitalized after being injured by debris falling from buildings, according to the state-run news media.
Turkey’s disaster management said this week that more than 6,000 aftershocks had hit the 11 provinces that make up the disaster zone in the days since the initial quakes of early February. A few dozen of them had a magnitude between 5 and 6.
Earthquake in Turkey and Syria is one of the deadliest in decades.
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The death toll in Turkey and Syria after Feb. 6’s earthquake has surpassed 46,000, which would make it among the deadliest since 2000.
In Turkey alone, the death toll reached more than 40,000 people by Sunday, exceeding the toll from the country’s Aug. 17, 1999, earthquake about 60 miles from Istanbul that killed nearly as many people. The latest death toll also surpassed the 16,000 deaths in Japan in 2011, when a magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, swept through the entire Pacific coastline.
Here are some of the deadliest earthquakes since 2000, according to data compiled by the United States Geological Survey:
About 298,000 deaths, South Asia, 2004: The most powerful earthquake in four decades ripped across South Asia on Dec. 26, 2004, generating tidal surges that were felt as far away as Africa. The epicentre of the magnitude 9.1 quake was off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra. The majority of the deaths occurred in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.
About 226,000 deaths, in Haiti, 2010: A magnitude 7.0 quake, the worst in the region in over 200 years, struck the Caribbean nation on Jan. 12, 2010, and was followed by several aftershocks. The earthquake devastated Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and left more than a million people homeless.
About 86,000 deaths, Pakistan, 2005: The Pakistan-administered region of Kashmir saw a magnitude 7.6 quake on Oct. 8, 2005, that killed more than 85,000 people, including in neighbouring Afghanistan and India.
About 88,000 deaths, China, 2008: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit a mountainous region outside Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, on May 12, 2008, setting off landslides and destroying almost 80 per cent of the infrastructure at the epicentre.
About 33,000 deaths, Iran, 2003: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake rocked Bam, an ancient city in southeast Iran, killing more than 30,000 and devastating up to 90 per cent of its residential areas. Aftershocks cut power lines and water services. Rescue efforts were delayed for hours, leaving displaced citizens outside in freezing temperatures.
About 20,000 deaths, India, 2001: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the western state of Gujarat in January, killing as many as 20,000 people.