ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on Monday, three weeks after a devastating earthquake devastated the region, causing some already damaged buildings to collapse and killing at least one person, officials said.
More than 100 people were injured as a result of Monday’s earthquake, which was centered in the town of Yesiliurd in Malatya province, Yunus Cesar, head of the country’s disaster management agency AFAD, told reporters. More than twenty buildings collapsed.
A father and daughter trapped under the rubble of a four-storey building in Esiliure were rescued with injuries. They entered the damaged building to collect their belongings.
Elsewhere in Malatya, search and rescue teams were sifting through the rubble of two damaged buildings that collapsed onto some parked cars, HaberTurk reported. It is not known if anyone was trapped in the wreckage.
Malatya was one of 11 Turkish provinces hit by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6.
That earthquake led to more than 48,000 deaths in both countries and caused the collapse or severe damage of 185,000 buildings in Turkey.
The head of AFAD urged people not to enter damaged buildings, saying strong aftershocks continued to pose a danger. Since Feb. 6, more than 10,000 aftershocks have hit the region.
The World Bank estimated on Monday that the massive earthquake caused $34.2 billion in “direct damages” — equivalent to 4% of the country’s GDP in 2021.
The World Bank said the cost of recovery and reconstruction could be twice as large, with GDP losses adding to the cost of the earthquake.
The World Bank also estimates that 1.25 million people have been temporarily displaced.
Meanwhile, fans of Turkish soccer team Besiktas threw stuffed toys onto the field during Sunday’s match in support of earthquake-affected children. Sports equipment and winter clothes donated to children in earthquake-affected areas were thrown onto the stadium’s grounds.
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This story was corrected to show that the estimated damage was $34.2 billion, not $43.2 billion.
