A 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook northwestern Turkey on Wednesday night. The number of injured rose to at least 35 people, according to civil protection Afad. One person was seriously injured, the broadcaster CNN Türk reported. She is said to have jumped out of the window out of panic and injured herself.
The epicenter of the quake was in the Black Sea province of Düzce, as Afad announced. The tremors were felt around 4:00 a.m. local time even in the 16-million metropolis of Istanbul, about 200 kilometers away, and in the Turkish capital Ankara. According to Afad, there were more than 70 aftershocks. People slept in public places wrapped in blankets, as could be seen on television pictures.
The mayor of the provincial capital of the same name, Düzce, Faruk Özlü, reported panic among residents on the CNN Türk broadcaster. The civil protection announced that the power supply in the region had been interrupted for control purposes. The authority called on everyone to remain calm.
Few countries are hit by severe earthquakes more often than Turkey, where two of the largest continental plates meet: the African and the Eurasian. In fact, most of the Turkish population lives in constant danger of earthquakes.
In October 2020, more than 100 people died in Izmir in one of the most serious earthquakes in recent years. In November 1999, around 900 people died in a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in the Düzce region. In September of the same year, Turkey was hit by one of the worst natural disasters in its history: a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in the region around the north-western industrial city of Izmit claimed the lives of more than 17,000 people. Experts are also expecting a strong earthquake in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, in the near future.
