New magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocks southern Turkey | Turkey-Syria Earthquake News

Monday’s aftershock in Hatay province was at a depth of 2km (1.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

A shallow magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the Turkey-Syria border region after it was devastated earlier this month by temblors that killed tens of thousands of people.

Monday’s aftershock in Turkey’s Hatay province was at a depth of 2km (1.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

The quake hit the town of Defne at 8:04pm (17:04 GMT) and was strongly felt in the cities of Antakya and Adana, 200km (300 miles) to the north.

A second magnitude 5.8 centered in Samandag district of Hatay shook the region several minutes later, Turkey’s emergency management agency said.

Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig, reporting from Gaziantep, said there were reports of more structures being destroyed in the region.

“There are buildings that are standing but have been damaged. The fear is if there are more aftershocks like this, it could bring down those buildings, causing further damage to the area or threats to life,” Baig said.

Witnesses said Turkish rescue teams were running around after the latest quakes, checking if people were unharmed.

Muna al-Omar said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when Monday’s quakes hit.

“I thought the Earth was going to split open under my feet,” she said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms. “Is there going to be another aftershock?” she asked.

Magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 earthquakes struck Turkey’s southeast and neighbouring Syria on February 6, killing nearly 47,000 people and leaving more than a million people homeless along with an economic cost expected to run into tens of billions of dollars.