A 6.4 magnitude earthquake ripped through southern Turkey on Monday, just two weeks after a 7.8 quake devastated the area.
At least three people died and hundreds of others were injured in Monday’s quake, which centered on the town of Defne and could be felt as far away as Egypt.
Search and rescue operations were underway again for people trapped under toppled buildings, according to AFAD, Turkey’s emergency management authority.
Turkey was still in the beginning stages of recovering from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6, which left at least 45,000 people dead.
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Ali Mazlum, and 18-year-old resident of Antakya, told Agence France-Presse that he was with AFAD looking for the bodies of his family members from the previous quake when Monday’s tremors started.
“You don’t know what to do,” Mazlum told the news outlet. “We grabbed each other and right in front of us, the walls started to fall. It felt like the earth was opening up to swallow us up.”
About 1.6 million people are being housed in temporary shelter and construction is set to being next month on nearly 200,000 new homes, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier Monday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Turkey on Sunday to survey the damage and pledged $100 million in aid.
“This is going to be a long-term effort,” Blinken said Sunday at a joint U.S.-Turkish facility coordinating the distribution of aid. “The search and rescue, unfortunately, is coming to an end. The recovery is on, and then there will be a massive rebuilding operation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
