Terrified Aleppines spent night outside after new quake
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Residents of the city of Aleppo spent Monday night in their cars and in the open far from buildings for fear of building collapse following the new earthquake.
At nearly 8 pm on Monday, two earthquakes hit Turkey’s Hatay Province, measuring 6.4 and 5.8 on Richter scale. The earthquakes, especially the first one, damaged northwest Syria and was felt in all of the country.
While others took shelter in mosques and schools that had been evacuated during the past few days from those affected by the Feb. 6 earthquake, as the Aleppo Awqaf Directorate announced an immediate order to open all places of worship to receive residents.
Director General of the National Earthquake Center (NEC) in Syria, Ra’ed Ahmad, told Sham FM, a local radio, all Syrian cities were affected by the tremor that occurred, which is one of the aftershocks of the great earthquake that occurred on Feb.6.
On Feb. 6, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Syria and Turkey, killing more than 44.000 and injuring many more, in addition to destroying thousands of buildings in both countries.
The Monday earthquake, Hatay province was the epicenter, caused a state of panic and terror among the residents, especially since Aleppo was affected by the earlier quake that killed about 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria with tens of thousands more left homeless, as well as thousands of buildings were weakened, cracked and collapsed.
Like the earthquake-affected Syrian regions, residents of Aleppo rushed to the streets and open spaces, fearing new collapses as a result of the earthquake.
The NEC in Syria recorded 38 very mild tremors since yesterday.
The Syrian government declared Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Idlib as disaster zone.