DUSHANBE, may 20, 2011, Asia-Plus – RIA Novosti reports that at least three people were killed and 75 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.0 points on the Richter scale hit western Turkey late on Thursday.
The earthquake occurred at 11.15 p.m. local time about 80 kilometers to the west-southwest of the town of Kutahya, the U.S. Geological Survey said. At least six aftershocks, the strongest measuring 4.6 points on the Richter scale, followed the quake, Turkey”s Kandilli earthquake observatory reported.
Turkey”s state Anadolu Agency said a university building had collapsed in Kutahya as a result of the earthquake. No one was inside the building when the quake occurred, media reports said.
The tremor also shook buildings in Turkey”s largest city of Istanbul, witnesses said.
“I am in Istanbul and I felt it, but nobody was hurt in Istanbul, just everybody is in panic now,” Doruk Kocal said in a comment posted on RIA Novosti”s Facebook page.
Kutahya Governor Kenan Ciftci reported that at least 75 people had been injured in the quake. One of the quake”s victims was a 75-year-old female resident in the city of Bursa, who died as a result of a heart attack following the quake, CNN Turk reported.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by fault lines. In August 1999, a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale killed some 18,000 people and left about half a million people homeless in northwestern Turkey.
