A 6.3-magnitude aftershock hits southern Turkey two weeks after the major earthquake of magnitude 7.8: 3 people killed and hundreds injured

The earthquakes that rocked both countries on February 6 were followed by tremors of magnitudes 6.4 and 5.8 that occurred on Monday February 20 in the southeast, close to the border with Syria. The tremor-weakened buildings toppled in both nations while at least three people were killed. After the quakes, which were also allegedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon, it is believed that 470 injured persons attended hospitals in Syria.

According to Turkey's disaster and emergency ministry, a 5.8 earthquake struck three minutes after the 6.4 tremor at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT). Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu stated that the three fatalities reported in Antakya, Defne, and Samandag while advising citizens to stay away from structures that are potentially dangerous. Mr Soylu said that at least 213 people are injured.

In Turkey and Syria, the recent earthquakes left 44,000 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. Today, rescuers are once more looking for victims who may be buried beneath the wreckage.

As paramedics and rescue teams worked to get to the worst-affected neighborhoods, where the walls of severely damaged buildings had collapsed, reports from the city of Antakya described terror and panic in the streets. Muna al-Omar, a local, sobbed while holding her seven-year-old kid and told that “I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet”. When the recent earthquakes occurred, she was in a tent in a city center park.

When the most recent earthquakes struck, 18-year-old Ali Mazlum told that he was searching for the remains of family members from the earlier quakes. "You don't know what to do... we grabbed each other and right in front of us, the walls started to fall," he said.