ISTANBUL – An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 shook north-west Turkey and was felt in Istanbul early on Wednesday, injuring 50 people and damaging some buildings in the province of Duzce, a government disaster agency and state media said.

There were no reports of deaths or major destruction as a result of the tremor, which struck at 4.08am with its epicentre in Golyaka, a district in Duzce about 200km east of Istanbul.

“We have almost completed our checks in the villages around Golyaka. There is no severe damage reported; only some barns were wrecked in these places,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on broadcaster TRT Haber, adding that about 70 aftershocks were recorded.

“There was a power cut during the quake, but the authorities are reinstating power now,” Mr Soylu said.

The Duzce courthouse was among eight buildings in the area that were damaged, according to the state-owned Anadolu news agency.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said it sent thousands of blankets and tents to the area of the quake, which injured 37 people in Duzce. People were also hurt in Zonguldak, Bursa and Istanbul.

“We were woken up with a big noise and tremor,” said Duzce resident Fatma Colak. “We got out of our homes in panic, and now we are waiting outside.”

Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes.

In 1999, two powerful quakes killed 18,000 people in north-western Turkey. In 2020, more than 100 people were killed in a quake in the western city of Izmir.

REUTERS, AFP