Three people are now reported to have died after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on Monday, weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said 213 people were also injured.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Agency Afad said the tremors occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT).
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the same area on February 6, killing more than 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
People killed in Monday’s tremor were found in Antakya, Defne and Samandagi, Mr. Soylu said, urging people not to enter potentially dangerous buildings.
Witnesses told Reuters there was further damage to buildings in Antakya, while the mayor of the southern Turkish city of Hatay said people were trapped under the rubble.
“I thought the ground would tear under my feet,” local resident Muna al-Omar told Reuters, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She was in a tent in a park in downtown Antakya when the latest quake hit, she said.
Turkish authorities have recorded more than 6,000 tremors since the February 6 quake, but the BBC’s team in the region said the latest tremors were much stronger than previous ones.
Monday’s earthquake struck near the Turkey-Syria border, and the White Helmets civil defense group said more than 100 people were injured, buildings were collapsing and panic was spreading across Syria.
The Syrian American Medical Society Foundation said five of its hospitals had received at least 30 people with injuries from the latest quake, but added that damage to its medical facilities “appears to be minimal”.
The earthquake was also reportedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon.
Afad said there were 32 tremors after Monday’s tremor, the largest of which had a magnitude of 5.8.
There is fear and panic in the streets as lines of ambulances and paramedics struggle to reach some of the worst affected areas where walls of heavily damaged buildings have collapsed.
A number of structures left standing after the February 6 tremors have now collapsed, including the bridge. Many cracks in the roads have become deep scars, making it difficult for emergency services to reach where they may be needed.
An AFP journalist reported on panicked scenes in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, which had already been devastated by a previous earthquake – with the latest tremors raising clouds of dust in the city.
Building walls also collapsed, AFP reports, with several apparently injured people calling for help.
Ali Mazlum said he was searching for the bodies of family members from the previous earthquake when the latest hit.
In a tweet, Afad initially urged people to stay away from the coast as a precaution against the risk of rising sea levels, although the warning was later removed.
