ANKARA (Dispatches) – A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck central Turkey on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.
The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), EMSC said.
Saturday’s earthquake had a depth of 7km (4.34 miles) and hit the Bor district at 1:27pm (10:27 GMT), the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD said. No casualties have been reported so far.
Vice President Fuat Oktay said response teams are on the ground to assess any damage.
“There is no negative situation at the moment. May God protect our country and our nation from all kinds of disasters,” he said on Twitter.
The aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude quake on Feb. 6, which led to over 50,000 deaths in southern Turkey and northern Syria, has seen Turks question the structural integrity of many of the 173,000 buildings that collapsed or were seriously damaged.
Experts have said many toppled structures were built with inferior materials and methods and often did not comply with government standards. Opposition parties have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration of failing to enforce building regulations.
Investigations have been launched against more than 600 people in relation to buildings that collapsed in Turkey’s catastrophic earthquake earlier this month, a government official said Saturday.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 184 of the 612 suspects had been jailed pending trial. Those in custody include construction contractors and building owners or managers, he said in televised comments from a coordination center in Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey.
“The detection of evidence in the buildings continues as a basis for criminal investigation,” Bozdag added.
Turkey launched its homes rebuilding drive for its 1.5 million citizens that are left homeless in the aftermath of the devastating tremors that jolted both Turkey and Syria earlier this month, leaving behind a death toll of more than 50,000.
President Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to rebuild homes within a year, as more than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged by the shocks.
Meanwhile, a pan-Arab international campaign has announced plans for launching a popular convoy to confront the long-running blockade imposed by the United States and the European Union on Syria, which is currently suffering the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that has so far claimed thousands of lives and left as many destitute across the Arab country.
The Arab and International Campaign to Break Siege on Syria made the announcement after a meeting headed by its general coordinator Magdi al-Masrawi, former secretary-general of the Arab National Congress, official SANA news agency reported.
“The conferees studied a proposal to launch an Arab popular convoy from the west of the Arab world to its east under the title “The Arab Unity Convoy to Break the Embargo Imposed on Syria” similar to the “Convoy of Arab Unity, Maryam” to break the siege on Iraq, which started at the beginning of the current century from London towards Morocco, then towards Iraq,” the campaign said.
According to the statement, it was agreed that members of the committee, along with members of the General Arab Conference, personalities and parties in solidarity with Syria, would conduct contacts in order to make the initiative a success.
The disastrous earthquake hit Turkey and neighboring Syria earlier this month, killing more than 50,000 in both countries, according to the latest figures which are updated daily.