Turkey has been hit by another earthquake just weeks after a tremor devastated the country and left 48,000 people dead. The magnitude 5.6 earthquake was centred in the town of Yesilyurt in Malatya province in southern Turkey, the country’s disaster management agency said. There were no immediate reports of casualties but 20 people are believed to have been taken to hospital for treatment.
Yesilyurt’s mayor, Mehmet Cinar, told HaberTurk television that a few buildings had collapsed in the town.
Malatya was among 11 Turkish provinces that was hit hard by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6.
That quake led to more than 48,000 deaths in both countries as well as the collapse or serious damage of 173,000 buildings in Turkey.
Since then, the country has been hit by a number of aftershocks that have led to more devastation.
AFAD, Turkey’s disaster management agency, have said nearly 10,000 aftershocks have hit the region since the original quake on February 6.
Last week, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey’s Hatay province which had been the most impacted by the February 6 earthquake.
The earthquake last Monday killed six people and injured a further 294, with 18 being left in critical condition.
After hundreds of buildings collapsed across the country, Turkish police have since arrested 184 people suspected of responsibility for the collapse of certain buildings.
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Experts have said many toppled structures were built with inferior materials and methods and often did not comply with government standards.
Opposition parties have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration of failing to enforce building regulations.
The mayor of a town close to the epicentre of the earthquake was detained as part of an investigation into collapsed buildings, the Cumhuriyet newspaper and other outlets reported Saturday.
Okkes Kavak, who heads the district of Nurdagi in Gaziantep province and is a member of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), is said to have failed to ensure construction inspections were carried out.
