A series of earthquakes shook Europe’s largest city of Istanbul on Wednesday, sending people running from buildings and Turkish authorities warning residents to stay outdoors.
The largest quake had a magnitude of 6.2 and struck the Marmara Sea 13 miles off the Turkish coast at 12:49 p.m. local time (5:49 a.m. ET), according to the United States 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 Bosphorus Strait.
The USGS’ “Did You Feel It?” map said it shook cities as far away as the Romanian capital of Bucharest and the Bulgarian capital of Sofia 300 miles away.
But so far, Turkish officials have found no “damage or adverse conditions on our highways, airports, trains or subways,” according to Turkish Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu on X.
Turkey’s disaster management agency, the AFAD, has “now started field scans,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
A park in Istanbul following an earthquake Wednesday.Yasin Akgul / AFP – Getty Images
Security camera footage distributed by the Reuters news agency showed the moment the earthquake struck. People were seen sitting in a cafe in Istanbul, which has a population of 16 million, before getting up to leave once the shaking started.
Some shops reportedly closed following 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.
Some 60,000 people died in Feb. 2023 when Turkey and neighboring Syria were hit by a 7.8-magnitude quake and more than 500 aftershocks over the next 24 hours.
