OAN Staff James Meyers
9:18 AM – Wednesday, April 23, 2025
A 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Istanbul, Turkey, and other areas of the country on Wednesday, Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency said on Wednesday.
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Over 150 people were hospitalized with injuries sustained while attempting to escape buildings, according to the Istanbul governor’s office. There were no immediate reports of serious damage in the populated area of 16 million.
The quake occurred in the Sea of Marmara close to Silivri, which lies around 70 kilometers (40 miles) to the west of the city, and aftershocks are continuing, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD).
It was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tekirdag, Yalova, Bursa and Balikesir and in the city of Izmir, which is 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Istanbul. There were also several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3.
Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said the quake lasted a total of 13 seconds at a depth of seven kilometers, with 51 aftershocks recorded so far, the largest of which was of 5.9 magnitude.
“Let’s not let down our guard against possible aftershocks,” Yerlikaya said on X.
Close to 6,100 emergency calls were received, he added.
“Due to panic, 151 of our citizens were injured from jumping from heights,” the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement. “Their treatments are ongoing in hospitals, and they are not in life-threatening condition.”
Many residents fled to open areas such as schoolyards to avoid being near buildings in case of collapse or subsequent earthquakes.
“Thank God, there does not seem to be any problems for now,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an event marking the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day holiday. “May God protect our country and our people from all kinds of calamities, disasters, accidents and troubles.”
Turkey is crossed by two major fault lines, which makes the country extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. On February 6, 2023, a magnitude 7.8-earthquake hit the nation and a second powerful tremor hit hours later, destroying thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces. The damage left 53,000 people dead and another 6,000 were killed in the northern parts of neighboring country Syria.
To combat the earthquakes, the national government and local administrations started urban reconstruction projects to fortify buildings at risk and launched campaigns to demolish buildings at risk of collapse.
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