Ministers issue statement following 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Silivri: Number of evacuated buildings and injured announced

Minister of Interior Ali Yerlikaya, Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum, and Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu held a press conference following the 6.2 magnitude earthquake.

Speaking first, Minister of Interior Yerlikaya announced that there were no deaths or injured citizens in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Istanbul.

Minister Yerlikaya's statements are as follows:

Today, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Sea of Marmara at 12:49. The earthquake, which occurred at a depth of approximately 7 km, lasted for a total of 13 seconds. The earthquake, which was 24 km away off the coast of Silivri, was felt in Istanbul, as well as in the provinces of Tekirdağ, Yalova, Bursa, and Balıkesir. As of 17:55, 127 aftershocks occurred, the largest of which was 5.9.

THERE IS NO LOSS OF LIFE OR INJURED CITIZENS

One of these aftershocks, as I just mentioned, was the largest at 5.9 magnitude, and the total number of aftershocks of 4 and above is 7. Dear friends, from the very first moment of the earthquake, our AFAD Presidency in Ankara, under the chairmanship of our Deputy Minister Münir Karaloğlu, and the TAMP and its working group heads, and likewise here under the chairmanship of our Istanbul Governor Davut Bey, all these valuable friends related to AFAD, TAMP, and Istanbul groups have come together. Thank God, there has been no loss of life or injured citizens in such a major earthquake so far.

EVERYONE CONDUCTED SCANS IN THE FIELD RELATED TO THEIR OWN AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY

What is the first thing we do in every earthquake? Scanning, that is, is there any negative trace of the earthquake in the field or not? We are trying to do this. For this, again here, under the coordination of AFAD, all public institutions and organizations, the Metropolitan Municipality, 39 District Municipalities, likewise the Fire Department, Police, Gendarmerie, our 1st Army, that is, all general and central units belonging to our state, under the coordination of this place and within the scope of the Istanbul Emergency Response Plan, which I forgot the number of when I was governor, and which was stated in the meeting many times during our Governor Davut's term, everyone conducted scans in the field related to their own area of responsibility.

WE HAVE AN EVACUATION DETERMINATION REGARDING 9 HOUSES

In the first stage, starting from the 45th minute, we gave this good news to the public through television channels. We said that, thank God, no report of any building collapse where people live has been received so far. We said that our scans are still continuing. Only one abandoned building in our Fatih district. And we have an evacuation determination regarding 9 houses made by our colleagues from the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change who came to evacuate and conducted observational scans. Our Minister will share the details with you shortly.

Highlights from the statements of Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum:

I convey my best wishes to our citizens affected by the earthquake. There is no situation that would cause panic. All units have been put on alert. Our institutions are continuing our work in the field with all their strength and meticulousness. Every necessary precaution is being taken. We take into account every request that comes to 112. 3 thousand people will carry out damage assessment work in the field. Tremors and aftershocks are continuing. Please, our citizens should definitely not enter risky buildings during this process. There are assembly areas during disasters.

We did not experience much of a communication problem in Istanbul from the first minutes. Our citizens can report any emergency situation they see to 112.

Our friends here are here for this. Istanbul always has an agenda and it always has to be on the agenda.

We live in an earthquake country. Let's transform our Istanbul together with urban transformation projects. We want to leave a beautiful Istanbul and Turkey to our children and our future.

We are trying to put forward this struggle together. We will carry out this process together and we will overcome it.

Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu's statements are as follows:

We did not have any injured citizens directly affected by the earthquake in Istanbul. However, we have 236 citizens who were injured due to falling, jumping, and having panic attacks.

In the initial assessment, no situation was encountered that would disrupt service in any of our hospitals.

We have done a lot of work in Istanbul regarding the earthquake. We must be prepared before the earthquake. We need to be ready for the earthquake together. Today's earthquake was a warning to us. We need to be much more prepared for the earthquake.

News Source: 12punto