A powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake has shaken eastern Turkey and Syria, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
The Turkish province of Malatya was shocked by the earthquake on Wednesday morning, with no damage or casualties reported yet.
It was felt in the cities of Diyarbakir, Elazig and Malatya, the HaberTurk television channel reported.
In Diyarbakir, people left their homes in panic, the report said, with AFAD adding: “Our teams are on alert and field scans are underway.”
Syria’s state news agency said the earthquake was felt in the provinces of Hasakah, Deir Al Zor and Aleppo.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) interactive map showing where the earthquake was felt in Turkey’s Malatya province
The USGC also uploaded a map showing the estimated intensity of the earthquakes
The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said the earthquake occurred at a depth of 9.0 kilometers (5.6 miles) beneath the Earth.
It comes after a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria last year in the space of just 12 hours.
The first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, and the second struck four kilometers outside Ekinozu in central Turkey.
It was the most devastating attack in earthquake-hit Turkey in more than two decades and was as strong as the one in 1939, the most powerful recorded there.
The explosion occurred at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 11 miles (18 kilometers), the US Geological Survey said at the time.
A strong aftershock measuring 6.7 rumbled about 10 minutes later, causing even more damage.
According to the Turkish agency, forty aftershocks were felt.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency said the earthquake killed dozens of people in seven Turkish provinces.
A few weeks later, on February 20, the region was hit by another major earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 million on the Richter scale.
Pictured: An aerial view of a destroyed building in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, 2023. The earthquake – which could be Turkey’s largest ever – occurred north of Gaziantep, Turkey, which is about 90 kilometers from the Syrian border and has a population of approximately 2 million
Pictured: A rescue worker carried an injured child from the rubble of a collapsed building in rebel-held Syria, after a deadly earthquake struck Turkey and Syria in 2023
People walked next to a mosque that was destroyed by an earthquake in Malatya in 2023
More than 55,000 people are estimated to have died in the earthquakes, while many more were injured and displaced.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.