At least one person died Friday after jumping out of a window of his home following an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the open Richter scale that struck the western Turkish province of Izmir, officials confirmed.
According to information gathered by the Turkish state news agency Anatolia, the deceased, identified as Altay Saral, 18, jumped out of a window in a moment of panic during the earthquake and died hours later in hospital due to the seriousness of his injuries.
The Presidency for Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) has indicated that the epicenter was located in the district of Buca and added that the area was affected by several aftershocks. According to available information, the earthquake toppled the minaret of a mosque in the area and caused panic among residents, 64 of whom were hospitalized.
The Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu, has detailed in his account on the social network Twitter that the injured have jumped from windows of their homes trying to escape after traveling to the area to analyze the situation, as reported by the Turkish newspaper ‘Daily Sabah’.
The earthquake has taken place days after the population of Izmir commemorated the victims of a 6.6 magnitude earthquake that left 117 dead on October 30, 2020. The country has been the scene of numerous earthquakes in recent years, including nearly 17,000 deaths in a magnitude 7.4 quake in 1999 in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.
