Another earthquake of magnitude 6.4 strikes Turkey; three dead, many trapped

Three people died after an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck Turkey's southeast near the border with Syria on Monday. Officials said over 213 people were injured in the incident and five are believed to have been trapped under three buildings which collapsed in the quake. 

Search and rescue efforts were underway, said Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. He added that the three deaths occurred in Antakya, Defne, and Samandag and urged people not to enter potentially dangerous buildings.

The quake also caused the collapse of multiple buildings, which were already weakened by the magnitude 7.8 quake that hit on February 6. 

Monday's tremors happened in the town of Defne, in Turkey's Hatay province, which was one the worst-hit regions in the last quake. This was followed by another second quake of magnitude 5.8 and the tremors were felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and even Egypt.

Hatay's mayor Lutfu Savas told local media persons that those trapped maybe people who had returned to their homes or were trying to move their furniture out of damaged buildings. One person who was trapped inside a three-story building was rescued and operations are on to rescue another three. At least eight were hospitalised.

A resident, Muna Al Omar, told Reuters she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the ground started heaving again. "I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet," she said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms. 

In the Turkish city of Adana, eyewitnesses said people rushed out of their homes to the streets, carrying blankets into their cars. 

As for Syria, the state news agency SANA reported that six people were injured in Aleppo from falling debris. Several others were injured in Syria's rebel-held northwest town of Jinderis after they jumped from buildings. According to the Syrian opposition's Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, several damaged and abandoned buildings collapsed in Syria's northwest without injuring anyone.

The Syrian American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria, said it had treated several patients including a 7-year-old boy who suffered heart attacks brought on by fear following the new quake. 

Meanwhile, the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD on Monday said the confirmed fatalities from the Feb. 6 earthquake in the country was 41,156. That increases the overall death toll in both Turkiye and Syria to 44,844.

According to the AFAD chief, rescue operations have been called off for survivors in most of the quake zone but the efforts were still on in more than a dozen collapsed buildings in Hatay province.

There were no signs of anyone being alive under the rubble since three members of one family a mother, father and 12-year-old boy were extracted from a collapsed building in Hatay on Saturday. The boy later died.

Meanwhile, the European Union's health agency has warned of disease outbreaks, including food and water-borne diseases, respiratory infections and vaccine-preventable infections.

A surge of cholera cases in the affected areas is a significant possibility in the coming weeks, it said, noting that authorities in northwestern Syria have reported thousands of cases of the disease since last September and a planned vaccination campaign was delayed due to the quake.

(With inputs from PTI)