A fresh earthquake of 5.6 magnitude hit Turkey on Tuesday, a day after three deadly earthquakes - also felt in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, rocked the country, having claimed 4,000 lives so far. The massive 7.8 magnitude quake was followed by dozens of aftershocks. A second major earthquake registering 7.5 on the Richter scale hit central Turkey just a few hours later, causing panic among rescue workers and survivors. In the evening, another quake of magnitude 6.0 hit the area, causing more damage and loss of lives.
More than 10 search-and-rescue teams from the European Union had been mobilised since the earthquake, a spokesperson for the European Commission said. The US, UK, Canada, Israel, Russia and China were among other nations to have offered assistance, and calls have emerged for the international community to relax some of the political restrictions on aid entering north-west Syria, the country’s last rebel-held enclave and one of the areas worst hit by the earthquake. The partial destruction of a Roman-era castle in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near where the first quake had its epicentre, led to fears that the earthquakes may have damaged other priceless monuments in Turkey and Syria, areas rich in cultural heritage.Turkey’s armed forces set up an air corridor to enable search-and-rescue teams to reach the zone affected. Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is under construction, was not damaged by the earthquake, an official from the Russian company building the plant said.The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called for increased funding for humanitarian aid in Syria, saying that many people in the north-west of the country have already been displaced up to 20 times, and that medical care in the region was “strained beyond capacity, even before this tragedy”.