ISTANBUL: More than 150 people were injured when they jumped from buildings in Istanbul on Wednesday as one of the strongest quakes in years hit the city. Many people gathered in parks and others sat on doorsteps, or stood outside their homes in the center of Istanbul as aftershocks from the magnitude 6.2 quake on the European side of the city continued to be felt. “It started with a big tremor all of a sudden and we felt it very strongly,” said Istanbul resident Neslisah Aygoren, sitting in a park. “I ran straight to my dog in fear, hugged it and we waited for it to end, lying on the ground. After that, we took our belongings and went straight to the street.”

A total of 151 people were hurt and received hospital treatment after leaping from buildings in panic during the tremor but none were in a critical condition, the Istanbul governor’s office said. It said one abandoned building collapsed in central Istanbul, but nobody was hurt there, while there was no damage to energy or water infrastructure in the city of 16 million on the European and Asian shores of the Bosphorus Strait. Schools and universities, which were closed on Wednesday when Turkey was marking National Sovereignty Day, would remain closed until the weekend, the education ministry said.

“An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude occurred in Silivri, Sea of Marmara, Istanbul,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X, adding that it was felt in the surrounding provinces. The initial quake struck at 12:49 pm (0949 GMT) at a depth of 6.92 kilometres under the sea, which lies to the south of the city, and lasted 13 seconds, he said. “By 3:12 pm (1212 GMT), 51 aftershocks — the largest of which was 5.9 magnitude — had been recorded,” he said.

Footage posted by the state news agency Anadolu showed the minaret of a mosque in the Beylikduzu district just west of the historic peninsula swaying during the initial quake. But there were no reports of other buildings collapsing in the sprawling city of 16 million people, Yerlikaya told TRT public television. Schools and universities, which were closed on Wednesday when Turkey was marking National Sovereignty Day, would remain closed until the weekend, the education ministry said.

‘Nothing we can do’

“We all panicked and just ran. There’s absolutely nothing else we can do,” a street seller called Yusuf told AFP. The tremors could be felt as far away as Bulgaria, according to AFP journalists in the capital Sofia. Two years ago Turkey suffered the deadliest and most destructive earthquake in its modern history. That 7.8-magnitude quake in February 2023 killed more than 55,000 people and injured more than 107,000 in southern Turkey and northern Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, with many still living in temporary housing as a result of that quake.

The latest tremor also revived memories of a 1999 earthquake near Istanbul that killed 17,000. The epicenter of Wednesday’s quake, which hit at 12:49 p.m. (0949 GMT), was in the area of Silivri, some 80 km (50 miles) to the west of Istanbul. It was at a depth of 6.92 km (4.3 miles), Turkey’s AFAD disaster agency said. Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said inspections did not reveal any damage to highways, airports, trains or subways. President RecepTayyip Erdogan said on X he was monitoring the situation and his office issued advice on what people should do in the case of further quakes. — Agencies