ISTANBUL: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul on Wednesday, with the impact felt across Turkiye’s largest city where people rushed onto the streets.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, officials said, but the quake was followed by at least eight others, Turkiye’s AFAD disaster management agency said. The initial quake struck at 12:49pm at a depth of 6.92km under the sea, which lies to the south of the city, AFAD added.

“An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude occurred in Silivri, Sea of Marmara, Istanbul,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X, adding that it was felt in the surrounding provinces.

It was followed by eight others with magnitudes of 3.5 to 5.9.

As buildings shook, people rushed onto the streets where crowds of worried-looking people stared at their mobile phones for information or made calls.

“I just felt earthquake, I’ve got to get out,” a shaken-looking decorator said while rushing out of a fourth-storey apartment where he was working near the city’s Galata Tower, who did not want to give his name.

Footage posted by the state news agency Anadolu showed the minaret of a mosque in the Beylikduzu district just west of the historic peninsula swaying during the initial quake. But there were no reports of any buildings collapsing in the sprawling city of 16 million people, Yerlikaya told TRT.

“Until now, nobody’s called the emergency line to report their house collapsing,” he said, though the Istanbul governor’s office warned people to avoid any structures that looked like they might have been damaged.

Footage on Turkiye’s NTV television showed one three-storey building collapsed in the Fatih district, also near the historic peninsula, with the broadcaster saying the building was empty and had been abandoned decade ago.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “following the developments closely”.

The tremors could be felt as far away as Bulgaria, according to AFP journalists in the capital Sofia.

Around 20,000 people were killed in two quakes that devastated Tur­kiye’s densely populated northwest in 1999 as the eastern strand of the fault line ruptured.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2025