Turkey, new magnitude earthquake: one dead and 69 injured in Malatya. Over 50,000 victims

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake was registered at 12.04 (10.04 in Italy) in Malatya, one of the provinces in southeastern Turkey already badly hit by the earthquake of 6 February. The epicenter was identified in Yesilyurt, one of the districts of the city in southeastern Anatolia, as communicated by the Turkish agency for disasters and emergencies Afad cited by the Anadolu agency. The Turkish state TV Trt broadcast a video in which the inhabitants of one of the city’s districts can be seen coming out of the buildings and run into the street in panic. One person died and 69 others were injured in the aftershock.

There are now more than 50,000 dead from the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February. In Turkey alone, 44,374 people lost their lives. According to the NGO Syrian Observatory on Human Rights, the victims in the areas affected by the earthquake in northern Syria are over 6,700. “We are now fully focused on clearing the rubble“, said Yunus Sezer, president of AFAD speaking of almost 10,000 aftershocks recorded since the day of the earthquake and over one and a half million displaced people in the ten provinces affected by the earthquake, while 563,000 people were evacuated from the area.

Meanwhile the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan he asked for “forgiveness” for the delays in relief efforts in Adiyaman, one of the most affected provinces. Citing “unfavorable weather conditions” and “damaged infrastructure”, Erdogan said that “in the first few days we were unable to work at the levels we would have liked and for this I apologize”, during a press conference broadcast by Turkish TV.