A second earthquake in three days jolted eastern Turkey early Monday, leaving 18 injured and causing material damage, local authorities said, quoted by the Anatolia news agency. The tremor, which measured 5.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, struck at 3:55 am (0155 GMT) in Karliova, in Bingol province, which was shaken Saturday by a quake measuring 5.7 that injured 16 people, the agency said.
Erkan Capar, a local official in Karliova, said the second quake cut off telephone lines in some isolated hamlets and farmers said they lost a number of animals.
More than 400 houses in 24 villages were damaged in Monday's temblor, Anatolia said.
Rescue teams quickly saved two women trapped in rubble when their home collapsed in the village of Sucati, the agency said.
The military was called in to fly tents, blankets, stoves and food by helicopter to the stricken area, many parts of which are snowed in.
In Karliova, people rushed to the streets when the tremor hit and spent the night outside around fires in this impoverished region known for its harsh winters.
School were ordered closed for three days from Monday.
In 2003, a quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale left 176 people dead in Bingol province, almost half of them children asleep at their boarding school when the tremor struck.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several seismological fault lines. Some 20,000 people perished in two massive tremors in heavily industrialised north-western Turkey in August and November 1999.
Comments
Comments are closed.