2023-02-21

Three people have died after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on Monday, weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region.

More than 680 people have been injured in Turkey and Syria.

Turkey's disaster and emergency agency Afad said the tremor occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT), followed by dozens of aftershocks.

A 7.8-magnitude quake struck the same area on 6 February, killing more than 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

Those killed by Monday's tremor were found in Antakya, Defne, and Samandagi, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, urging people not to enter potentially dangerous buildings.

Mr Soylu said 213 people had been injured in Turkey.

Witnesses told the Reuters news agency there had been further damage to buildings in Antakya, while the mayor of Hatay, in southern Turkey, said people were trapped under rubble.

"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet," Muna al-Omar, a local resident, told Reuters, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the latest earthquake hit, she said.

Turkish authorities have recorded more than 6,000 aftershocks since the 6 February earthquake, but the BBC's team in the region said the latest tremor felt much stronger than previous ones.