A new earthquake hit southeast Turkey

A new earthquake, magnitude 5.6, struck this Monday Malatya province, in southeast Turkey, already hit by strong earthquakes last day 6, which caused the death of one person and injured 69 others, Turkish authorities informed.

The epicenter of the earthquake was ten kilometers south of the capital of Malatya province in south-central Anatolia.

The quake killed at least one person and injured 69 others, Yunus Sezer, president of Turkey’s emergency agency AFAD, said on television.

An hour and a half after the earthquake, rescue teams managed to pull out a living person trapped under the rubble.

As detailed Minister of Education Mahmut Özer Rescue teams initially rescued 5 people from the rubble caused by today’s earthquake, which toppled 22 buildings and forced 20 people to be hospitalized.

The mayor of Yesilyurt municipality, where the epicenter is located, told reporters that the father and daughter were trapped by debris while entering a house damaged by previous earthquakes to collect belongings.

Malatya is one of 11 provinces hit by the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes that devastated southeastern Turkey and northern Syria three weeks ago, killing more than 43,000 people in Turkey and more than 170,000 buildings completely destroyed.

With just over 4,000 buildings destroyed or severely affected, Malatya is one of them relatively moderately affected areas.

Since the earthquake, almost two million people have been surviving in tents and prefabricated shelters in the still-shaking region or in various reception facilities across the country.

In recent weeks, there have been numerous aftershocks, several above magnitude 5, relatively common in Turkey and usually harmless, but now posing a major risk due to demolition of buildings already damaged by the first earthquakes.