A powerful earthquake has struck Turkey again today amid the nation’s struggle to recover from a series of disasters this month.
The 5.5 magnitude earthquake took a blow to central Turkey, just days after two further quakes hit the border near Syria.
At 10.27am, the alarm of a 10km-deep quake was raised by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
It was said to have occurred 40km south of city Aksaray and 18km northeast of Emirgazi was hit by a 10km-deep quake.
This was followed by reports from India Today that the disaster took place in the Niğde province which is almost 230 miles from Gaziantep – affected by the initial 7.8 quake on February 6.
Collapsed buildings and heaps of rubble were also photographed in the Golbasi district, worsening the toll taken to Turkey’s infrastructure.
Today’s disaster comes at a time when both Turkey and Syria had begun work to reconstruct homes for the millions that were displaced by the quakes.
More than 50,000 have been killed due to the continued destruction, but no casualties have been confirmed as a direct result of today’s incident.
Vice President Fuat Oktay has since tweeted that teams are ‘in the field’ assessing the damage caused but ‘there is no negative situation at the moment’.
He said: ‘Get well soon to all our citizens who were affected by the earthquake in the Bor district of Niğde.
‘Our teams are in the field, the damage assessment work continues. There is no negative situation at the moment.
‘May Allah protect our country and our nation from all kinds of disasters.’
On Monday, a new 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck parts of Turkey and Syria that were laid waste by a massive tremor that occurred two weeks prior.
Officials confirmed that three people died in Monday’s tremor after more buildings collapsed, trapping occupants, and several people were injured in both countries.
This came exactly two weeks after the catastrophic earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.6 magnitude that took place on February 6.
