It was possible to react quickly to the new earthquake, because the rescue and clearance work of the previous earthquake was still ongoing.
Special expert of the Ministry of the Interior Pekka Tiainen estimates that the small number of victims of yesterday’s earthquakes in Turkey is explained by the previous earthquake.
A new earthquake occurred near the city of Antakya. The city was very badly damaged in the first earthquake.
– My assessment is that a lot of buildings have already been empty there. Because so much of the city’s buildings are so badly destroyed, there haven’t been many people who have returned. That partly explains the current reading of the accident victims, said Tiainen Radio in Finland.
Tiainen is currently in the city of Gaziantep in Turkey, where he is coordinating international emergency aid.
The ground shook in Turkey again yesterday, Monday, twice. There are almost ten dead and around 200 injured. In addition, at least 130 people have been injured in Syria, according to local rescue authorities.
According to Tiainen, the luck in the accident was also that the rescue and clearance work is still ongoing after the previous earthquake. That is why it has been possible to react quickly to the new earthquake.
People do not dare to return to their homes
According to Tiainen, life was slowly getting back to normal in Turkey.
– Yes, this was a setback. There are a lot of people on the streets because they don’t dare to go back into the buildings.
Tiainen says that the Turkish authorities have classified which buildings are safe to return to. However, it may be difficult to return if the residents see that the building has traces of the earthquake.
The situation is still alive. Tiainen refers to data from earthquake research centers, according to which there is a 25 percent chance that an earthquake with a magnitude greater than six will hit Turkey in the next month.
In the earthquake two weeks ago, at least 44,000 people died in Turkey and Syria.