Earthquake Shakes Turkey-Syria Border Again: Magnitude 6.4, Felt as far as Egypt and Lebanon

JAKARTA - An earthquake rocked the border region of Turkey and Syria again on Monday, two weeks after the region was hit by a bigger quake, killing more than 47,000 people and damaging or destroying hundreds of thousands of homes.

Monday's earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, centered near the city of Antakya, southern Turkey, was felt as far away as Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said the current quake occurred at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).

Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas told broadcaster HaberTurk he had received reports of several people trapped under the rubble after the last quake.

Three people were killed and more than 200 injured, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, according to Reuters, February 21.

In Samandag, where the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) reported one person dead, residents said more buildings had collapsed, but most of the town's residents had fled after the previous quake. Mounds of rubble and discarded furniture line the dark and abandoned streets.

Refugee Muna Al Omar said he was in a tent in a park in the central city of Antakya when the ground started shaking again.

"I thought the earth would split under my feet," she said, crying and holding her 7-year-old son.

The death toll from the earthquake two weeks ago rose to 41.156 people in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and is expected to continue to rise, with 385.000 apartments known to have been destroyed or severely damaged and many people still missing.

Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said construction work of nearly 200.000 apartments in Turkey's 11 earthquake-hit provinces would start next month.

Among the victims of the earthquake were some 356.000 pregnant women who urgently needed access to health services, according to the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency.

They include 226.000 women in Turkey and 130.000 in Syria, some 38.800 of whom will give birth next month. Many of them are sheltering in camps or exposed to freezing temperatures and struggling for food or clean water.

Separately in Syria, which has been devastated by more than a decade of civil war, most of the deaths have been in the northwestern region, where the United Nations says 4.525 people died. The area is controlled by rebels fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, complicating relief efforts.

Syrian officials say 1.414 people have died in areas under the control of President Assad's government.