Turkey hit by two more powerful earthquakes two weeks after disaster

The latest quakes, less powerful than the 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that tore a path of destruction through southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February, threaten yet more devastation in a region where many people have fled their destroyed homes for the safety of other towns and villages outside the quake zone.

The larger quake struck at a depth of just 2km (1.2 miles), the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, potentially magnifying its impact at ground level. It was centred near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

Those who had remained in Hatay for two weeks after the first quakes said they had done so out of fear of losing their homes entirely, or a sense that they had nowhere else to go.

The death toll in Turkey from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 on Monday, AFAD said, and was expected to climb further, with 385,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing. At least 47,000 people are estimated to have died across Turkey and Syria.

In rebel-held Syria, local search and rescue services and the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, reported the latest earthquakes had damaged buildings across a number of cities and towns.

They said people had been injured by falling debris and crowd crushes, as well as jumping from elevated positions in fear of the destruction.

Among the survivors of the earthquakes are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to health services, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) has said.

They include 226,000 women in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, about 38,800 of whom will deliver in the next month. Many of them are sheltering in camps or exposed to freezing temperatures and struggling to get food or clean water.

In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most deaths have been in the north-west, where the UN said 4,525 people were killed. The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, complicating aid efforts.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report