Quake jolts western Turkish city
2005-10-31 11:29
Ankara - An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale on Monday shook the port city of Izmir in western Turkey, the latest in a flurry of tremors to hit the region this month.
The quake, whose epicentre was in the Aegean Sea, struck at 07:26 and was followed by an aftershock with a magnitude of 4.2, the Kandilli seismological institute in Istanbul said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or destruction.
Four powerful tremors, measuring between 5.6 and 5.9 on the Richter scale, hit Izmir earlier this month, causing material damage and the deaths of two elderly people from heart attack.
Turkey is prone to frequent earthquakes, with some 20 000 people killed when two massive tremors struck the heavily industrialised northwest in August and November 1999.
- AFP