Three people were injured when they jumped out of buildings in panic after an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale hit central Turkey Wednesday, a local official told Anatolia news agency. The epicentre of the tremor was at the Ilgin district in Konya province, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said. The injuries were not life-threatening, Recep Kosal, a senior local administrator, told Anatolia. Another five people were treated for shock, he said.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several major fault lines. Two violent temblors in the heavily populated, industrialised north-west claimed about 20,000 lives in August and November 1999.