A series of earthquakes shook Europe’s largest city, Istanbul, on Wednesday, sending people running from buildings and Turkish authorities warning residents to stay outdoors.
The largest quake, which had a magnitude of 6.2, struck the Marmara Sea 13 miles off the coast at 12:49 p.m. local time (5:49 a.m. ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
That was followed by at least three aftershocks between magnitudes 4 and 5, the USGS said, all clustered near the economic maritime artery of the Bosporus Strait.
The USGS’ “Did You Feel It?” map said it shook cities as far away as the Romanian capital, Bucharest, and the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, 300 miles away.But so far, Turkish officials have found no “damage or adverse conditions on our highways, airports, trains or subways,” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said on X.
Turkey’s disaster management agency, the AFAD, has “now started field scans,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
Security camera video distributed by Reuters showed the moment the earthquake struck. People were sitting in a café in Istanbul, which has a population of 16 million, before getting up to leave once the shaking started.Some shops reportedly closed after the initial quake and its aftershocks.
Turkey is a particularly active earthquake zone, sitting at the junction of three tectonic plates: the Eurasian, Arabian and African.
About 60,000 people died in February 2023 when Turkey and neighboring Syria were hit by a 7.8-magnitude quake and more than 500 aftershocks over the next 24 hours.
