A  magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Turkey and rebounds into Syrian provinces

An earthquake struck southern Turkey on Wednesday morning, before its effects spread directly to a number of Syrian provinces, where residents felt clear earthquakes in Aleppo, Latakia, Tartus and Idlib, according to local sources.

The National Seismological Center said in a statement posted on its Facebook account that its stations recorded an earthquake  at 09:00 local time with a magnitude of 5.6 on the Richter scale in the Turkish city of Malatya, which was felt by some residents of areas in northern Syria.

  Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) said the quake occurred at 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT), at a depth of 7.03 kilometers below the earth's surface, and its epicenter was in the district of Batalgazi.

No casualties so far

The Turkish and Syrian authorities announced in their latest official statements that no human casualties or serious material damage have been recorded so far, as field surveys continue in the areas affected by the earthquake that struck Malatya province and bounced back into Syria.

The service authorities and the Civil Defense did not record any damage to residential buildings or public facilities in Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia, and the repercussions were limited to a state of panic that prompted some residents to take to the streets temporarily.

Turkish media said residents of the states of Malatya, Adiyaman, Gaziantep, Adana, Kahramanmaraş, Diyarbakir, Illavir, Sivas and Şanlıurfa felt the tremor, with many taking to the streets for fear of subsequent tremors.

Evacuation of schools in southern Turkey

The governor of Malatya, Sedar Yavuz, confirmed that emergency and rescue teams are continuing inspection tours throughout the state and the district of Batal Ghazi, without receiving any reports of collapses or negative incidents.

In Gaziantep, the governor of Gaziantep, Kemal Çeber, explained that the tremor was strongly felt, but initial examinations did not show any damage or injuries, and the states of Kahramanmaraş, Adiyaman and Elavir issued identical statements confirming that the emergency lines were free of any distress calls, while the situation continued to be monitored by AFAD teams and local authorities.

Local media in Turkey monitored precautionary evacuations of schools in areas close to the epicenter, while engineering teams continue to inspect water, electricity and bridges networks in the district of Batalgazi to ensure that they are not affected by the shallow depth of the tremor.

The devastating February earthquake of 2023

 On February 6, 2023, an earthquake occurred in Syria and Turkey, which was described as one of the most violent natural disasters the region has witnessed in its modern history, after its magnitude reached 7.8 on the Richter scale and caused a wide wave of destruction in both countries.

The region witnessed two major earthquakes that day, the first occurred at 4:17 a.m. with a magnitude of 7.8 near the city of Gaziantep, followed about 9 hours later by a second earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 in the area of Ekinozu near Maraş, while thousands of aftershocks continued for weeks, exacerbating the extent of the losses.

The earthquake resulted in  more than 59,000 deaths in the two countries, including 53,537 deaths in Turkey and more than 6,000 in Syria, tens of thousands injured and extensive  infrastructure collapsing or cracking.

In Turkey, the impact of the earthquake extended to 11 southern provinces, where more than 230,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged, while between 1.5 and 3 million people were displaced, andin Syria, the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Hama were severely damaged, amid an already debilitated infrastructure, which led to the displacement or damage of about 8.8 million people.

Economic losses in Turkey were estimated at $148.8 billion, while in Syria they ranged between $5.1 billion and $9 billion, in light of the great difficulties faced by rescue operations, especially in northwestern Syria, due to the delay in the arrival of international aid and the harsh weather conditions that accompanied the disaster, including snowstorms and extreme cold.