reblog

ADANA, Turkey — A powerful new earthquake shook southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday evening, spreading panic among survivors two weeks after a powerful double tremor nearby destroyed more than 100,000 buildings, killed more than 46,000 people and left more than a million homeless.

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck near the town of Uzunbag in Turkey's Hatay Province just after 5 pm local time, according to the United States Geological Survey. The same province suffered widespread damage in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck before dawn on Feb. 6, followed by a powerful 7.5-magnitude aftershock a few hours later.

The shaking on Monday spread terror across the quake zone, where many people, traumatized by the earlier disaster, are staying in tents and sleeping in their cars because they remain too scared to go inside any buildings.

It was not immediately clear whether the new quake had caused any structures to collapse in the already stricken area or whether it had killed anyone.

At the Sheraton hotel in the city of Adana, where a number of buildings had collapsed in the initial earthquake, families crammed into elevators with their luggage to evacuate the building.

One woman suppressed sobs, trying to reach someone on her phone. Another guest started calling family members, urging them to leave the building.

"How will I ever go back to my building," one woman muttered.

"I'm trembling. We are all traumatized," said Asu Askit, the wife of the hotel's owner. "I think I will stay in my car tonight."

The authorities in Turkey warned residents of the earthquake zone to stay away from damaged structures, and the country's national disaster management organization warned people in a tweet to stay away from the Mediterranean coastline, fearing that the sea level could rise as much as half a meter.

Serkan Topal, a Turkish lawmaker who was in Hatay during Monday's earthquake, told Turkey's Halk TV, "I am afraid there are casualties," without specifying if he meant dead or wounded.

The new quake could exacerbate the challenge of providing shelter to survivors still in the area, he said.

"Now, we will need even more tents," he said. "After this evening's earthquake, no one will enter their houses. We need tents, tents.”

Hatay's governor, Rahmi Dogan, told the state-run Anadolu news agency that the authorities were scanning the city for possible destruction and that residents had appealed for help.

"We kindly ask all of our citizens to stay away from damaged buildings and follow our team's warnings," Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter.

Across the border in Syria, some buildings that had been damaged in the first earthquake collapsed after the new quake on Monday, said Muneer Mustafa, the deputy chief of the White Helmets, a rescue organization. Some minor injuries were reported and rescue teams were being deployed to assess the damage, he said.

The newly collapsed buildings were in already hard-hit areas in northwestern Syria, including in the towns of Jindaris and Harem.

Elsewhere in Syria, medics reported injuries from falling trees and residents being rushed to hospitals after fainting or suffering heart attacks.

In the city of Aleppo, six people were hospitalized after being injured by debris falling from buildings, according to the state-run news media.

Turkey's disaster management said this week that more than 6,000 aftershocks had hit the 11 provinces that make up the disaster zone in the days since the initial quakes of early February. A few dozen of them had a magnitude between 5 and 6.

Cora Engelbrecht reported from Adana, Turkey, and Ben Hubbard from Istanbul. Reporting was contributed by Raja Abdulrahim in Adana, Safak Timur, Gulsin Harman in Istanbul and Hwaida Saad in Beirut, Lebanon.