German relief worker recounts shock, panic after new southern Türkiye tremor

By Burak Dag

HATAY, Türkiye (AA) – The fresh earthquake that rocked Türkiye’s southern Hatay province sent a wave of shock and panic among people already traumatized by the seismic catastrophe of Feb. 6, according to a German relief worker on the ground.

“We saw that people were really scared by experiencing such a heavy earthquake after the one that was only two weeks ago,” Florian Hauke, team leader of German NGO Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland (ASB), told Anadolu at a field hospital in Hatay’s Samandag district.

The ground shook “very heavily,” he said about the magnitude 6.4 earthquake that mainly jolted the districts of Samandag and Defne on Monday evening.

Hauke is in Hatay with a 13-member crew of the ASB, which was founded in 1888 and has a presence in 14 countries across the world.

He said the German team treated some people who were injured after the fresh quake and also gave equipment to other medics on the ground, who were unable to access a hospital in the area due to the tremors.

The ASB team also provided tea and blankets to people who rushed out into the open for safety, Hauke added.

“We all came together and supported each other,” he said.

According to the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD, at least six people were killed and 294 others wounded after the 6.4 magnitude quake struck in Defne at around 8.04 p.m. local time (1704GMT) on Monday.

It was followed by a 5.8 magnitude aftershock three minutes later, with the epicenter in Samandag.

- Hope in solidarity

Hauke said the devastating quakes in southern Türkiye have left behind “a huge challenge.”

However, Turkish authorities and relief agencies from different parts of the world have been making great efforts to overcome this disaster, he added.

The solidarity being seen on the ground will be key as that is “what makes us humankind” and it “will give us all hope,” he asserted.

On the ASB’s work in Hatay, he said the team has also set up a purification plant to give people access to clean drinking water.

Monday’s tremor in Hatay came just two weeks after the destructive back-to-back quakes on Feb. 6, which have so far killed over 42,300 people in Türkiye, according to the latest official figures.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

The quakes also caused widespread devastation in parts of northwestern Syria, where the death toll has climbed to at least 5,840.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​