A 5.3 magnitude earthquake shook the earth in south-eastern Turkey yesterday. The quake was registered at around 10:31 p.m. local time (20:31 CET) in the municipality of Göksun, the Kandilli earthquake station said in the evening via the short message service Twitter. The USGS put the magnitude of the quake at 5.0. The state news agency Anadolu reported a strength of 5.1, citing information from the civil protection agency AFad.
The municipality of Göksun is located in the province of Kahramanmaras, which was hit by the earthquake disaster in the Syrian-Turkish border area.
Over 40,000 dead in Turkey alone
AFAD recently warned of strong followingshocks from the devastating earthquake twelve days ago in the Turkish-Syrian border area, which claimed more than 40,000 confirmed deaths in Turkey alone. There are around 5,900 confirmed dead people in Syria so far. In total, more than 46,000 people lost their lives in both countries.
Despite reports to the contrary in the meantime, the missing professional soccer player Christian Atsu was also found dead today. The Ghanaian died under a high-rise building in the Hatay province, which was particularly badly hit by the tremors. Turkish media had meanwhile reported that the footballer had been rescued. According to his club Hatayspor, he should now be brought to his home country of Ghana and buried there.
People are still being rescued from the rubble. According to media reports, three people, including a child, were rescued in Antakya around 296 hours following the first tremor. However, the 12-year-old child did not survive despite medical treatment, the state news agency Anadolu said.
According to AFAD information, more than 40,000 emergency services from Germany and abroad are still on duty to rescue people who have been buried.
