An earthquake, with a magnitude 6.3 at a depth of two km (1.2 miles), struck the Turkey-Syria border area on Monday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) stated. Shaking was additionally felt in Lebanon, and Israel, amongst different locations. 

Two Reuters witnesses reported a robust quake and additional harm to buildings in central Antakya which was hit by two large earthquakes two weeks in the past, inflicting tens of hundreds of deaths and destroying buildings  and infrastructure. 

“That is the eleventh felt earthquake in Turkey-Syria Border Area within the final 68 hours,” stated EMSC concerning the earthquake close to Turkey’s southeastern Hatay province.

The report got here hours after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken advised Turkey that Washington would assist “for so long as it takes” after devastating, lethal earthquakes in the identical area two weeks in the past.

Blinken on Sunday toured an space devastated by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks that killed greater than 47,000 folks in southern Turkey and northwest Syria.

Different witnesses stated Turkish rescue groups had been working round after the newest quake, checking folks had been unhurt. Some buildings that had been broken within the lethal twin quakes two weeks in the past collapsed within the tremor, CNN Turk reported, citing eyewitnesses.

Muna Al Omar, a resident, stated she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the earthquake hit.

“I assumed the earth was going to separate open below my ft,” she stated, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms.

“Is there going to be one other aftershock?” she requested. President Tayyip Erdogan stated building work on almost 200,000 flats in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would start subsequent month.

Whole U.S. humanitarian help to help the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria has reached $185 million, the U.S. State Division stated.

Vice-President Fuat Oktay stated on Twitter that investigations had been ongoing and warned residents to steer clear of broken buildings.

Smaller tremors have jolted the area within the final two weeks however the Monday quake was the biggest since Feb. 6.

“It was very robust. It jolted us out of our locations,” stated Burhan Abdelrahman, who was strolling out of his tent in a camp in Antakya metropolis centre when the earthquake struck.

“I known as kinfolk in Syria, Adana, Mersin, Izmir, all over the place, to test on them.”

Turkey’s catastrophe company AFAD urged residents to steer clear of the Mediterranean coast over a doable 50-centimetre rise in waters as a result of quake.

Movies posted on social media, unverified by Reuters, confirmed passengers at Antakya airport taking cowl in panic because the quake jolted the glass constructing.