3 dead, over 600 injured after new quake hits Turkey
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Feb, 2023 12:56 PM
Ankara, Feb 21 (IANS) Three people are now confirmed to have died after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on Monday, weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu also said 213 people had been injured.
Turkey's disaster and emergency agency Afad said the tremor occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT), the BBC reported.
A 7.8-magnitude quake struck the same area on February 6, killing more than 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
Those killed by Monday's tremor were found in Antakya, Defne, and Samandagi, Soylu said, urging people not to enter potentially dangerous buildings.
Turkish authorities have recorded more than 6,000 aftershocks since the February 6 earthquake hit, but the BBC's team in the region said the latest tremor felt much stronger than previous ones.
Monday's earthquake hit near the Turkey-Syria border, and the White Helmets civil defence group said more than 100 people were injured in Syria, with buildings collapsing and widespread panic, the BBC reported.
The Syrian American Medical Society Foundation said that five of its hospitals received at least 30 people with injuries from the latest earthquake, but added that damage to its medical facilities "appears to be minimal".
The earthquake was also reportedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon.
There is fear and panic in Turkey as small aftershocks keep coming. Lines of ambulances and rescue crews are trying to get to some of the worst affected areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings have collapsed.
A number of structures that were left standing after the tremor on February 6 have now crumbled, including a bridge. Many cracks in roads have become deep scars making it more difficult for the emergency services to get where they may be needed.
An AFP journalist reported on scenes of panic in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province which was already devastated by the previous earthquake -- with the latest tremors raising clouds of dust in the city.
The walls of badly damaged buildings also crumbled, AFP reports, with several apparently injured people calling for help.
In a tweet, Afad initially urged people to stay away from coastlines as a precaution against the risk of rising sea levels, although the warning was later removed.
The go-ahead for the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech comes as the virus surges again in the United States and Europe, putting pressure on hospitals and morgues in some places and forcing new rounds of restrictions that have devastated economies.
Announcing the results on Monday, Moderna said it has submitted emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to apply for a conditional marketing authorisation with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and to progress with the rolling reviews, which have already been initiated with international regulatory agencies.
Protest by thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana took place in New Delhi over the weekend entering its fifth day Monday as the farmers continue to showcase their displeasure against the Centre's new farm laws.
Monday's delivery of an 18-and-a-half foot tall Fraser fir by horse-drawn carriage signalled the kickoff of the usual array of White House holiday events that will include the annual turkey pardon and Christmas and Hanukkah events.
The results are based on an interim analysis of trials in the U.K. and Brazil of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and manufactured by AstraZeneca.
The action comes days after Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech announced that its vaccine appears 95% effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease in a large, ongoing study.
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