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Eastern Turkey Jolted by 5.5-Magnitude Earthquake
An earthquake, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, has rocked Turkey's eastern province of Van, the Anatolian News Agency reported on Thursday.
The quake, which occurred in Van, a province adjacent to Iran, at 17:07 local time (1507 GMT) on Wednesday, was felt strongly in the mountainous province and the neighboring province of Bitlis.
The tremor caused city dwellers in Van to rush to the streets, but no casualties were reported in the country's sparsely-populated region. Security forces tried to calm down the panicky inhabitants.
Officials said that efforts were underway to determine damage of properties in the rural areas.
Meanwhile, another minor earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale was reported on Wednesday in Hakkari Province, to the south of Van Province.
According to a report of the Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and Quake Research Center, Semdinli, a town close to the Iranian and Iraqi borders, was the epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 18:06 local time (1606 GMT).
Turkey, an earthquake-prone country, is known to lie on different fault lines that stretch from the Marmara Sea to the inland of the Asia Minor Peninsula.
Two strong earthquakes measuring above 7 on the Richter scale devastated western Turkey a year ago, in which nearly 20,000 people were killed.
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