ISTANBUL: A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey on Monday, killing one person and wounding dozens others while causing some damaged buildings to collapse, the government’s disaster agency said.

The epicentre of the tremor was the Yesilyurt district in the Malatya province, which was hit by the February 6 earthquake that killed over 44,000 people in Turkey and thousands more in neighbouring Syria.

“One citizen lost his life. Some 69 were injured,” Yunus Sezer, chairman of AFAD disaster agency, said in televised comments. AFAD tweeted that 29 buildings already damaged by a powerful February 6 earthquake had collapsed. “Our search and rescue teams were quickly dispatched to the region, and started to work,” it added.