Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that three two-story buildings and a shop were destroyed after the 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Sunderg, Balıkesir district (western Turkey).
The buildings were uninhabited. There was no information about casualties, Turkish state television „TRT Haber“ reported.
Numerous teams of the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) were sent to the scene. A report on the institution's website shows that after the 6.1-magnitude earthquake, registered at 10:48 p.m. local time, more than 40 aftershocks of varying strength were registered within a few minutes. Electricity was cut off in one place. Tomorrow has been declared a school holiday in the entire Balıkesir district.
In addition to this district, the earthquake was felt more strongly in the cities of Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, Tekirdag, as well as in some parts of Bulgaria. Panic drove people outside. Some of them continue to be outdoors. So far, there has been no wave of reports submitted to the 112 hotline.
The strong earthquake was followed by reactions from Turkish politicians. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed solidarity with those affected by the earthquake on his Facebook profile.
„The teams of the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate are on site. They are working on the ground and controlling the activities. We are closely following this process“, wrote Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu reported that no road infrastructure was damaged as a result of the earthquake.
Earthquakes in Balıkesir have been a frequent occurrence since August 10 this year, when a tremor, again with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale, killed one person and injured nearly 30 others. Turkey is crisscrossed by several geological faults that have caused many tragedies in the past. The southeastern part of the country was hit by a powerful earthquake in February 2023, which killed at least 53,000 people and devastated Antakya, the former Antioch.