ANKARA:At least 80 people were injured when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake rattled western Turkey early on Wednesday, state news channel TRT reported. One person was seriously injured after jumping out of a window in panic, broadcaster CNN Türk reported. The epicentre was located in the Black Sea province of Düzce, disaster control authority AFAD said, but tremors could be felt as far away as Istanbul, some 200 kilometres from Düzce, and Ankara at around 4 am (0100 GMT). The quake was followed by at least 100 aftershocks, according to AFAD. The US Geological Survey recorded the magnitude as 6.1, while the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) spoke of a magnitude-6 quake. The mayor of Düzce, Faruk Özlü, told CNN Türk that panic had broken out among citizens, but so far there were no reports of casualties or of anyone seriously injured. There has so far also been no significant damage to buildings, Özlü said. AFAD announced it was interrupting power supply in the region for control purposes and urged people to remain calm. Turkey lies on both the Eurasian and the African tectonic plate, which makes it a hotspot for seismic activity. One of the most serious quakes of the past years occurred in October 2020 in the city of Izmir on the Aegean Sea, in which more than 100 people died. In November 1999, a 6.3-magnitude quake killed about 900 people in the Düzce region. In September of the same year, a particularly strong quake with a magnitude of 7.4 claimed the lives of more than 17,100 people in the region around the industrial city of Izmit, about 130 kilometres away.
Experts also expect a strong quake for Turkey’s largest city Istanbul in the near future.
