2. Image source, Getty Images
3. As we’ve been reporting, a series of earthquakes have struck near Istanbul, shaking buildings in Turkey’s largest city and prompting people to flee apartment blocks.
4. At 12:49 local time (10:49 BST), a 6.2 magnitude quake in the Sea of Marmara triggered panic in Turkey’s largest city.
5. Tremors were felt in neighbouring provinces and in the city of Izmir, some 550km (340 miles) south of Istanbul. There have been scores of aftershocks too.
6. So far, there are no reports of major damage, but one abandoned building in the central Fatih district has collapsed.
7. Officials say at least 151 people are being treated in hospital after jumping from high places due to the panic caused.
8. We’re now pausing our live coverage, here’s our news story which contains everything you need to know.
11. Fatima Çelik
12. BBC Turkish, reporting from Istanbul
13. Although the earthquakes hit Istanbul on a weekday afternoon, Wednesday is a national holiday here, so schools, universities and public institutions were closed.
14. This meant that more people than usual were at home when the quake struck.
15. Worried about aftershocks and whether buildings were safe, hundreds of residents have decided to spend the night outdoors.
16. In Beşiktaş, one of the city’s busiest neighbourhoods, people have gathered in open spaces like the main square.
17. Selim Ustaoğlu, a university student, was in his dorm room when the tremors began.
18. “At first I thought I was going to faint,” he says. “Then I realized it was an earthquake. I yelled to alert others and ran outside.”
19. He packed a small bag with essentials like a charger, toothbrush and his favourite sweater before heading to the square. “I’m staying here tonight,” he says.
20. “I was in the supermarket with my family when everything started to shake,” says Zeynep Akıncıoğlu, another student. “We rushed outside. I don’t feel safe going back inside, our building doesn’t look strong.”
21. 
22. Image caption,
23. Zeynep Akıncıoğlu says she doesn’t feel safe going back inside
24. Omar Syed, who is originally from India and has lived in Istanbul for 10 years, says it was the strongest quake he has ever experienced.
25. “My wife and I were having brunch when it started. We left our building immediately,” he says. “You never really feel prepared for something like this.”
26. 
27. Image caption,
28. Omar Syed and his wife were having brunch when the first quake hit Istanbul
31. A woman holidaying in Istanbul with her family tells the BBC that the building she was staying in “started to shake quite violently for what seemed like about five minutes”, around Wednesday lunchtime.
32. Caroline and David Warburton, from Rugby in the UK, are visiting with their two children.
33. The family – who have been staying on the eighth floor of an apartment block – soon realised it was an earthquake, so gathered their passports and phones and rushed out of the building.
34. Caroline says children were crying as residents ran down the stairs. They fled to a local park, along with many others, to try and get away from high-rise buildings.
35. “The children say they could see cracks in the building, and there is a lot of traffic, sirens and fire engines,” Caroline says.
36. Image source, Getty Images
39. Image source, Getty Images
40. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who was arrested last month and placed in a high-security jail, says his “greatest sadness” is that he can’t be with the city’s residents today.
41. Imamoğlu – a key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – is being held on corruption and terrorism charges, which he denies.
42. Turkey’s opposition has condemned his arrest as a “coup attempt against our next president”.
43. In a post on X via his lawyer, Imamoğlu says: “As managers and urban planners who have dedicated their lives to disaster-focused planning in Istanbul and who have struggled for this purpose, my greatest sadness is that we can’t be with you.”
44. “The issue of earthquakes is greater than winning elections,” he says, adding: “We urgently need unity, solidarity and common sense.”
47. Having evacuated their buildings, we’re seeing images of people putting up tents in parks in Istanbul’s Bağcılar district.
48. The city’s residents have long feared a major earthquake, and scientists have been warning that one might hit for some time.
49. Image source, Getty Images
50. Image source, Getty Images
51. Image source, Getty Images
54. Image source, Duru Yunek
55. Image caption,
56. Duru says people from her neighbourhood are camped out at a public gathering point
57. Duru Yunek assumed she was fainting when she started to feel shaky in the middle of her morning shower – but after hearing loud bangs from outside, quickly realised her entire home was moving.
58. She says her mobile phone network cut out as soon as the earthquake hit, and she couldn’t reach her family and friends.
59. “I was really panicked because I thought it was the major earthquake that we’ve all been expecting in Istanbul,” she tells the BBC World Service’s OS.
60. “This is a wake up call,” Yunek says. “I wasn’t prepared, my family wasn’t prepared. We just froze.”
63. Orla Guerin
64. Reporting from Istanbul
65. The pavement cafes in my neighbourhood are full of customers who aren’t ready to go back inside yet. Some returned home earlier, only to leave again.
66. When I went back to my flat briefly to collect some broadcasting equipment, there was another tremor as soon as I got through the door.
67. It lasted only a few seconds, and was much milder than the major earthquake earlier – one of the strongest to hit the city in recent years, according to Turkey’s disaster agency.
68. There are no reports of deaths or serious injuries.
69. On the streets you can hear the buzz of phones – many people are still getting calls from loved ones to check they are OK. But shops and restaurants remain open, and the city is returning to its normal noisy rhythm.
70. There is a sense here that the city has had a lucky escape, because the earthquakes were offshore in the Sea of Marmara.
71. But everyone knows that more quakes may come.
72. Some here keep an “earthquake bag” ready, by the front door, with essentials, in case they have to run from their homes.
73. One neighbour told me she was heading home, to pack one.
76. Schools in Istanbul will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Education Minister Yusuf Tekin has announced.
77. He adds that no serious incidents have been reported at any schools in the city, and that school gardens will be open to members of the public to be used as safe spaces.
80. A total of 51 aftershocks have been recorded following the powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake which hit Istanbul earlier, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
81. The strongest of those was 5.9 magnitude, he says.
82. Yerlikaya adds that the 6.2 magnitude earthquake was recorded approximately seven kilometres underground and lasted 13 seconds.
83. Turkey’s emergency call centre has so far received over 6,000 calls, he says, with most people contacting the line for information.
84. Earlier we reported that the Istanbul governor’s office said 151 people had been injured after jumping from height in panic after the earthquake.
85. 
88. Fatima Çelik
89. BBC Turkish, reporting from Istanbul
90. 
91. When the earthquakes hit Istanbul’s central district of Beşiktaş, loud screams came from the houses.
92. People didn’t know what to do and ran outside in panic.
93. Now, you can see many of them waiting on the streets in their pyjamas, holding bags and pets.
94. Everyone is on their phone, trying to reach their loved ones. The traffic is jammed. Fear is written on every face.
97. At least 151 people have been injured after jumping from high places due to panic caused by the earthquakes, Istanbul’s governor’s office says.
98. In a post on X, it adds there have been no recorded fatalities, and no residential buildings have collapsed.
99. An abandoned building in Istanbul’s Fatih district collapsed, it says, but no deaths or injuries have been recorded as a result.
100. Energy and gas supplies, drinking water and sewage infrastructure are also unaffected, it adds.
103. Image source, Reuters
104. While we wait for more details, let’s look back at the powerful earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and Syria in early 2023.
105. In February 2023, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit south-eastern Turkey, close to the Syrian border, killing tens of thousands and injuring many more.
106. The quake struck near the city of Gaziantep and was quickly followed by several aftershocks, including one almost as big as the first.
107. It was so destructive because it broke along around100km (62 miles) of fault line, causing major damage to buildings nearby.
110. We’re now hearing from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is speaking about the quakes at a children’s festival in Ankara, the country’s capital.
111. He says search efforts are ongoing and he’s following the situation closely, adding that ministers earlier told him that there were “no problems” so far.
114. We’ve now got more images showing what the streets look like after the earthquake hit.
115. From what we can see, there’s a large crowd on the street. Some people are sitting on the ground, while others are making phone calls.
116. Image source, Getty Images
117. Image source, Getty Images
118. Image source, Getty Images
121. Burak Abatay
122. BBC Turkish, reporting from Istanbul
123. 
124. I was in Pendik, one of the large districts on the Asian side of Istanbul, when the earthquake hit.
125. The 6.2 magnitude quake was the most terrifying experience my father – who has limited mobility – and I have had in a long time.
126. Everyone in our building rushed outside. While we were still trying to process what had happened, we felt another tremor. People panicked – grabbing their pets, holding their children, helping the elderly.
127. Istanbul is huge, and people I’ve spoken to say there are too few safe open spaces to shelter in during a disaster.
128. One person asked: “What will we do if there’s an even bigger earthquake? Where will we go?”
129. Another, worried about the condition of her very old apartment, said: “I probably shouldn’t go back in tonight. But what am I supposed to do?”
132. We’re now seeing pictures of a partially collapsed abandoned building in Istanbul’s Fatih district after a series of earthquakes.
133. It’s not yet known if there are any casualties.
134. Authorities are urging people not to go near buildings that could be damaged.
135. Image source, Getty Images
136. Image source, Getty Images
139. Image source, CNN Turk/ X
140. Today’s earthquakes struck during a live TV interview on CNN Turk, with presenter Meltem Bozbeyoğlu staying on air as the studio shook.
141. Visibly anxious and out of breath, Bozbeyoğlu says: “We felt it terribly.”
142. She then asks someone through her earpiece to call her mother.
143. “I’m 32 years old and this is the first time I’ve experienced such a big earthquake,” she says.
144. She leaves her mother a message: “Can you please reach me on WhatsApp.”
145. “I was frightened, I apologise if I made you panic,” she tells viewers.
146. You can watch the clip here, external.
149. Paul Kirby
150. Europe digital editor
151. Image source, Getty Images
152. Istanbul sits on the North Anatolian fault line so it is vulnerable to earthquakes. The city has seen deadly tremors before and its residents have long feared an even bigger one.
153. The Kandilli observatory has put the risk of Istanbul experiencing a 7-magnitude quake by 2030 at 64%.
154. In 1999, a 7.4-magnitude quake claimed 17,000 lives and last year Turkey’s environment minister warned that Istanbul did not have the capacity to withstand another one.
155. “One in every five houses in Istanbul, almost 1.5 million, are considered structurally unstable,” said Murat Kurum. The environment minister recently spoke of fighting earthquakes as a matter of national security.
156. The devastating twin quakes in south-eastern Turkey and Syria in February 2023 were of 7.6 and 7.7 in magnitude and left 55,000 people dead.
159. Turkish geologist and earthquake expert Naci Görür says today’s earthquakes happened on the Kumburgaz fault.
160. The Kumburgaz and Adalar faults are the closest to Istanbul, and both are key to the larger earthquake that has long been expected in the city.
161. Görür says in a post on X that today’s earthquakes are “not the big earthquakes we expect”, which he thinks will be above magnitude seven, but they do add to the stress on the Kumburgaz fault and make it more likely to break.
162. He calls on the government, Istanbul municipality and the public to work together to prepare the city for earthquakes.
165. The map below shows the first three earthquakes that struck Istanbul’s Silivri and Buyukcekmece districts earlier today.
166. They happened in the Sea of Marmara, to the west of the city.
167. Image source, bbc

Page 2

2. Tom Joyner
3. Live reporter
4. Halil Taşkın was working by the water in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş neighbourhood when he felt the quake.
5. He and his colleague dived under the table and waited for the rumbling to end.
6. When it was over, Taşkın switched on the TV news and looked out at the crowds gathering in the street below.
7. “It feels like it was for a long time, but it was only five seconds or 10 seconds,” he tells me. “The news anchor was almost in tears.”
8. Like many others, he’s terrified of an earthquake in Istanbul, something analysts have warned about for years.
9. “We are all on tenterhooks,” he says.
10. 
13. Asya Robins
14. Live reporter
15. Today’s earthquakes hit the western outskirts of Istanbul – the Silivri and Buyukcekmece districts.
16. Although they are quite far out of the city centre, both are prominent suburban areas and tend to receive an influx of residents and visitors in the spring and summer seasons.
17. Istanbul has also been expanding geographically over the last several years, with many people opting to move to less built up areas, outside the city centre.
18. Scientists have long said that a big earthquake in Istanbul, which has been expected for years, could hit at any moment.
19. Having lived there myself for most of my life, and with my family still there, it’s hard not to feel anxious.
20. Although no casualties have been reported so far, Istanbul residents have long feared this moment, and will be wondering if it’s a sign of a worse earthquake to come.
23. Paul Kirby
24. Europe digital editor
25. The biggest of the tremors to hit Istanbul was felt some 275 miles away (440km) in the capital, Ankara, according to Mayor Mansur Yavas.
26. It’s a measure of how powerful the 6.2-magnitude quake was.
27. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first comments, says he is following events closely.
30. They are measured on a scale called the Moment Magnitude Scale (Mw). This has replaced the better-known Richter scale, now considered outdated and less accurate.
31. The number attributed to an earthquake represents a combination of the distance the fault line has moved and the force that moved it.
32. A tremor of 2.5 or less usually cannot be felt, but can be detected by instruments. Quakes of up to five are felt and cause minor damage.
33. Anything above a six (which includes the largest quake today measuring at 6.2) is considered strong and can cause severe damage.
34. Anything above eight causes catastrophic damage and can totally destroy communities at its centre.
37. Officials from the Istanbul Governorship say they haven’t received any reports of earthquake damage yet.
38. Authorities are still scanning the city and ask members of the public once again not to approach buildings that might be damaged.
41. Tom Joyner
42. Live reporter
43. Across Istanbul, residents are still reeling from the shock. Selin Tüter was at work in an office building on the European side of the city when the earthquake hit.
44. At first she felt the ground give way, sending her off balance. Then she heard a deep rumble, “as if something was punching from underneath”.
45. “When that happened, a lot of people panicked. A lot of people started making a run for it,” she tells me.
46. She explains that many people in Istanbul are wary of earthquakes following the massive shocks that killed 55,000 people in Turkey and Syria in 2023.

Quote Message

Most people who live in Istanbul do know there is a big earthquake expected. People are asking if this is a pre-shock.”

1. Image source, EPA
4. Istanbul authorities are warning the public not to enter buildings that might be damaged following the earthquakes.
5. They advise people to not drive or use their phones unless absolutely necessary.
6. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says disaster and emergency management teams are starting to assess the impact of the quakes.
9. We’ve just received the first batch of images from Istanbul, showing people looking worried as they leave buildings to call loved ones:
10. Image source, Getty Images
11. Image source, Getty Images
12. Image source, Getty Images
15. Turkey’s disaster agency has just recorded another three earthquakes, all in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district.
16. Their website has just crashed – presumably due to high demand – we’ll bring you more details on the specifics as soon as we can.
19. Paul Kirby
20. Europe digital editor
21. Turkey’s disaster agency has recorded a series of tremors in a matter of minutes, all of them along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, and close to Istanbul.
22. It is the second tremor of 6.2 magnitude that will be most worrying for Istanbul’s 16 million-strong population.
23. It’s the biggest city in Turkey where a fifth of the country’s population lives.
24. The interior minister says the quake was felt not just in Istanbul but in surrounding provinces too.
27. Orla Guerin
28. Reporting from Istanbul
29. In my street in Istanbul, neighbours have gathered together, standing away from buildings, some clearly in shock.
30. There is still no information about any casualties. I have felt previous earthquakes in my building, but in my six years living in Istanbul I have never felt one as strong as this.
31. The building shook. I took cover for a few seconds inside and then rushed out of the building when the shaking continued. A neighbour says lamps crashed to the floor in her apartment.
32. Living in Turkey means living with the risk of earthquakes. But today’s quakes have brought fear to many. Memories are fresh here of the devastating two quakes in southern Turkey in 2023.
35. We’ve got more now from Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, which is reporting several earthquakes in Istanbul.

• The first is of 3.9 magnitude and hit the coast of the Silivri district at 12:13 local time (10:13 BST)
• The second is of 6.2 magnitude and hit the same area at 12:49 (10:49 BST)
• The third quake of 4.4 magnitude in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district hit at 12:51 local time (10:51 BST)

3. Orla Guerin
4. Reporting from Istanbul
5. No word yet of any casualties.
8. A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 has hit Istanbul, news agency Reuters reports, citing Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.
9. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) says the earthquake had a magnitude 6.02 and was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles).
12. Orla Guerin
13. Reporting from Istanbul
14. Buildings in Istanbul have been shaken by what feels like an earthquake.
15. People are out in the streets in my neighbourhood on the European side of the city.
16. I ran from my own building. I felt it very clearly in my flat. No further info yet.
19. We’re getting reports of an earthquake hitting Turkey’s largest city Istanbul.
20. This is a breaking story and we’ll bring you more in the next few moments.