Marmara province jolts with earthquakes

BALIKESİR – Demirören News Agency

Turkey’s northwestern province of Balıkesir jolted with more than 70 earthquakes in less than 12 hours, according to the country’s emergency and disaster authority.

A tremor with a magnitude of 4.6 struck the province’s Altıeylül district at 11.14 p.m. local time on Dec. 10, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said on Dec. 11.

It was followed by two successive earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.3 and 4.0 in half an hour, it added.

No casualty was reported, said the Balıkesir governor’s office said, adding that 20 people applied to hospitals with panic.

The tremors caused fear in some districts of the nearby Çanakkale and Bursa provinces, as well as the Aegean province of İzmir and the Istanbul metropolis.

Turkey is one of the most seismic areas in the world, with Istanbul sitting near a major fault line.

The 1999 quake had a magnitude of 7.5 and hit the Marmara region, the most industrial and densely populated region of the country, killing more than 17,000 people.