Turkiye earthquake updates: Istanbul rocked by magnitude 6.2 quake

This live page is now closed.

For more on what happened today, you can read our full story here.

And for a refresher on what happened when the worst earthquake in decades struck the country in 2023, read here.

Here is a wrap-up of what happened today:

• A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul at 12:49 (09:49 GMT).
• The epicentre of the quake was located in Silivri, 80km (50 miles) west of Istanbul, at a depth of 6.92km (4.3 miles), Turkiye’s disaster agency (AFAD) said.
• Istanbul Governor Davut Gul says at least 151 people have been injured due to panic during the earthquake and jumping from heights to escape.
• AFAD reported seven earthquakes in the region today.
• Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says the strongest aftershock was measured at 5.9 magnitude.

Speaking to reporters in New York, UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed support for “the government and the people of Turkiye”.

Guterres said he was in “full solidarity” with the country “in this difficult moment”.

Turkiye’s Education Minister Yasuf Tekin says schools in Istanbul and the surrounding provinces have not experienced any “serious negative effects” as a result of the quake and its aftershocks.

Schools will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Tekin said in a social media post.

Our colleague Melike Yoldas recalled that she did not immediately realise that it was an earthquake until someone in the cafe she was in said it out loud.

“That’s when we all started looking around and realised that, the shop was moving from side to side,” Yoldas recalled. “Someone actually described it as, ‘I felt like a baby that’s being rocked in a cradle.'”

Yoldas said that once reality hit, she and the other customers walked out, where they joined many others who had also gone onto the street within about a minute of the earthquake striking.

“People were shaken up and worried and scared, so they all stepped out immediately.”

Istanbul Governor Davut Gul says at least 151 people have been injured due to panic during the earthquake and jumping from heights to escape.

Gul added that those who jumped are currently receiving treatment at the hospital and “their lives are not in danger”.

“All units of our state, especially AFAD and our Ministry of Health, are currently on alert,” President Erdogan said.

“Our search and screening efforts continue meticulously. We are also following the process very closely.”

The president added that he had received up-to-date information from Istanbul’s governor and the AFAD, and there did not seem to be “any problems for now”.

If you have just joined us, here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Turkiye’s disaster agency AFAD reports seven earthquakes in the region today.
• At least 151 people have been treated in hospitals for jumping from heights due to panic, Turkish authorities have said.
• Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said the strongest aftershock was measured at magnitude 5.9.

Leyla Ucar, a personal trainer living in Istanbul, says she was exercising with her student on the 20th floor of a building when they felt intense shaking.

“We shook incredibly. It threw us around, we couldn’t understand what was happening, we didn’t think of an earthquake at first because of the shock of the event,” she told AP. “It was very scary.”

Cihan Boztepe, 40, was one of those who hurriedly fled to the streets with his family to avoid a potential collapse. Standing next to his sobbing child, he told AP that he was living in Batman province, an area close to the southern part of Turkiye, where the 2023 quakes were felt strongly, but today only tremors were felt and that he wasn’t as scared.

“At first we were shaken, then it stopped, then we were shaken again. My children were a little scared, but I wasn’t. We quickly gathered our things and went down to a safe place. If it were up to me, we would have already returned home.”

Videos show panic in a grocery store as the magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Istanbul earlier today.

No casualties have been reported so far.

Watch below for scenes from the ground:

On Istanbul’s western outskirts, Silivri has made headlines in the past month as it is where the megacity’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was imprisoned after his arrest in a corruption case that his critics say is politically motivated.

A number of students were also detained there for joining the mass protests that erupted nationwide against the arrest of Imamoglu, President Erdogan’s biggest political rival.

Although they felt the quake, no one was hurt, the Parents Solidarity Network said on X.

“The earthquake in Istanbul was most strongly felt in Silivri but our children are fine. There is no problem at the prison, no parent should worry,” the group wrote.

Video from CNN Turk shows a presenter’s reaction as an earthquake near Istanbul shook its studio and cameras.

Watch the dramatic moment below:

Here are the locations of the magnitude 6.2 earthquake and the aftershocks.

Side-by-side video published by the Turkish news agency Anadolu shows the moment the magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck several areas of the country.

Watch below:

Translation: The magnitude 6.2 earthquake that occurred in Istanbul at 12:49pm was also felt in the surrounding provinces.

Earthquakes are no news to Turkiye, and experts have long warned that the megacity of Istanbul should prepare for a powerful one, perhaps multiple.

Following the massive earthquake in 2023 that killed more than 55,000 people in the country’s southeast, many started questioning the earthquake preparedness of Istanbul, Turkiye’s business and tourism capital, hosting some 16 million people.

“The fault line under the Marmara Sea has the capacity to create two earthquakes stronger than magnitude 7.0 in one year. We saw this in the Kocaeli and Duzce earthquakes in 1999, as well as in other ones in the region in the past,” an expert had told Al Jazeera back in 2023.

Read the full analysis here.

For many, today’s earthquake stirred memories of past tragedies, most recently the twin quakes in southern Turkiye that killed about 55,000 people, and the 1999 Izmit earthquake, in which nearly 20,000 people died.

For decades, people in Turkiye, especially Istanbul, have spoken about “the next big one”. That fear continues to loom large.

In the immediate aftermath, many in Istanbul poured into the streets after a series of aftershocks. While there is no widespread panic, residents are visibly shaken. Some can be seen socialising with neighbours, clutching pets, and chatting in their slippers and pyjamas, clear signs they left in a rush.

In my neighbourhood of Nisantasi, many have gathered in Macka Park to take advantage of the good weather.

The park is now packed, some people sipping tea, others glued to their phones, reading the latest updates. Most are simply talking about what they were doing at the exact moment the earthquake hit, bonding over the shared experience and, for now, making light of a situation that thankfully did not end in disaster.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on February 6, 2023, and a second powerful tremor that came hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern Turkish provinces, and killed more than 53,000 people.

Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighbouring Syria.

While Istanbul was not affected by that earthquake, the devastation heightened fears of a similar quake, with experts citing the city’s proximity to fault lines.

In a bid to prevent damage from any future quake, both the national government and local administrations started urban reconstruction projects to fortify buildings at risk and started campaigns of demolishing buildings at risk of collapse.