A powerful earthquake shook Istanbul on Wednesday, sending residents of Turkey’s most populous city pouring into the streets as buildings swayed and onlookers screamed.
The magnitude-6.2 tremor, which hit at 12:49 p.m. local time, rattled nerves in a country still traumatized by a devastating 2023 quake that struck the southeast. Turkey straddles two major fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes. The residents of Istanbul, in particular, have been bracing for a major quake that experts have warned for years is overdue in the ancient city.
The city of 16 million seemed to have evaded the long-predicted threat on Wednesday, with no deaths reported by late afternoon. But widespread panic spurred many people to jump off their balconies, according to the local governor’s office, which said 151 people had been injured doing so.
More than 50 aftershocks followed and shook Istanbul and the area around it throughout the day, with Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya saying the largest recorded a magnitude of 5.9. The governor’s office said it would shut down schools for two days to house people afraid to return to their homes. Many people sought safety in Istanbul’s parks.
The 2023 earthquake in southeastern Turkey forced the country to reassess its preparedness and building standards after entire city blocks collapsed. The 7.8-magnitude quake and its aftershocks killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and about 6,000 more across the border in neighboring Syria.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, said on Wednesday that emergency services were continuing to search for damage in Istanbul, the country’s economic hub. But by around 3:30 local time, the local authorities said they had found only one collapsed, empty building.
“All units in our state are on the alert right now,” Mr. Erdogan said in an address from Ankara, the capital. “Thank God, so far, there isn’t any problematic situation.”
An initial assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey showed the quake had a depth of about six miles, with its epicenter some 25 miles southwest of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara, the body of water that connects the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was felt from the city of Bursa, around 40 miles from Istanbul, all the way to Izmir, a coastal city nearly 300 miles away.
In Silivri, the suburb of Istanbul closest to the epicenter, television footage after the quake showed patients at the state hospital being evacuated outdoors in beds and stretchers.
Television news programs were debating whether the temblor was a precursor to a more catastrophic quake. Historical records suggest that Istanbul has averaged an earthquake of that magnitude about every 250 years, with the last major temblor in 1766. And seismologists have for years warned the authorities that Istanbul should be prepared for a quake of a magnitude of seven or higher that would pose a major threat to lives and buildings in the city.
The earthquake on Wednesday struck as many in Istanbul were outside enjoying sunny weather on a national holiday that commemorates the 1920 opening of the Grand National Assembly, Turkey’s parliament.
Some people began to panic as they realized the shaking they felt was an earthquake. Others took cover, or rushed to make phone calls to check in on loved ones.
Shortly after the quake, Turkish officials warned people to stay away from buildings that could be unstable. For residents of the city’s older buildings, that has meant steering clear of their own homes.
Nur Inan, a 59-year-old tennis instructor, decided to leave her apartment and let her cat wander around outside so the two could wait out any potentially larger tremors that might affect their building, which is over 50 years old.
Wearing sunglasses and clutching her pink gym bag, Ms. Inan sat on a bench in her neighborhood, lamenting what she described as a failed effort by the city to rehabilitate and protect aging buildings like hers.
More than two-thirds of the buildings in Istanbul were built before 2000, before the city’s building safety codes were updated. The city has been working to rehabilitate or rebuild those that were constructed before the new safety measures, but critics say the efforts are not moving quickly enough considering the quake risk in Istanbul.
“This problem should have been solved long ago,” said Ms. Inan, who had decided to wait a bit longer before heading home. “What can I say? I really regret the state is not solving this.”
