Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay revealed the number of aftershocks that occurred following the new earthquakes in Hatay Province on Monday evening. Oktay stated that 20 aftershocks followed the new earthquakes in the "Defne" area and Samandağ district of Hatay Province. According to Oktay, hospitals received 8 injured individuals following the new earthquakes, which registered magnitudes of 6.4 and 5.8 on the Richter scale.
Oktay also mentioned that they have received 28 reports since the occurrence of the new earthquakes and indicated that they are conducting necessary investigations regarding each report, as reported by the Turkish Anadolu Agency. The Turkish official reiterated his warning against entering buildings in the earthquake zones, especially those that were damaged by the initial earthquake. He confirmed that the two new earthquakes that struck Hatay on Monday evening are independent of the previous quake that occurred on February 6 and do not involve aftershocks.
**Casualties and Injuries**
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stated that 3 people were killed and 213 injured in the new earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday. According to Soylu, search and rescue efforts are underway in 3 collapsed buildings where it is believed that 5 people are trapped.
For his part, Hatay Mayor Lutfi Savas reported that several buildings collapsed in the new earthquake, leading to people being trapped inside. Savas added in an interview with NTV that those trapped might be individuals who had returned to their homes or were attempting to move furniture from damaged houses.
In Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that more than 470 people were injured and taken to hospitals, while the Syrian official news agency (SANA) reported that 6 people were injured in Aleppo due to debris falling after the earthquake.
Injuries among civilians were reported due to falling stones, jumping from high buildings, or stampedes, with others fainting. Moreover, two unoccupied cracked buildings and a mosque minaret collapsed in Jandairis north of Aleppo, along with several cracked buildings in Kherbet al-Joz, Al-Hamziya, Maland, and Al-Zouf in the Idlib countryside, without any injuries reported.
Walls and balconies of houses collapsed in several cities and towns in the Aleppo and Idlib countrysides, in an initial assessment. Ziyad Haj Taha, the Director of Health in Aleppo, mentioned that there were no emergency cases resulting from building collapses due to the aftershocks, indicating that some individuals visited Al-Razi hospital "out of fear and because people rushed out of their homes into the streets."
