An earthquake shook northwestern Turkey on Wednesday night. The epicenter of the earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 was in the Black Sea province of Düzce, according to the Turkish civil protection agency. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that there were at least 22 injured, including one seriously injured. 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. There were several aftershocks.
The mayor of the provincial capital of the same name, Düzce, Faruk Özlü, reported panic among residents on the CNN Türk broadcaster. So far, however, there has been no major damage to buildings and no deaths. The station showed images of people wrapped in blankets holding out on the street. It was “incredibly wobbly,” reported a local journalist. The civil protection announced that it would interrupt the power supply in the region for control purposes. The authority called on everyone to remain calm.
Few countries are hit by major earthquakes more often than Turkey, where two of the largest continental plates meet: the African and Eurasian plates. 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.
