The Turkish soil has trembled again this Friday night. An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 has shaken the eastern province of Elazig , where it has left at least four dead. The shaking, stronger than usual in a country due to tremors, has been felt even in northern Syria and Iraq . Near the epicenter, which according to the Turkish Emergency and Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) has been located 6.7 km deep in the Sivrice district, numerous buildings have suffered severe damage.

AFAD's current balance is 14 dead and 57 seriously injured. "We pray to God for his soul," says the first statement from the Turkish Interior Minister, Süleyman Soylu . According to the newspaper Sabah, the president of the AFAD Mehmet Güllüoglu , has said that emergency teams from the neighboring provinces already come to the rescue of the victims of the earthquake, which occurred at 20:55 local time (18:55 peninsular).

"It has been terrifying," explains Elazig Meral, a teacher who was with her family at the time of the earthquake. Not yours, but other nearby houses have suffered significant damage. Some of the first images show blocks of up to five plants partially or totally defeated. In the center of Elazig, the rupture of a gas pipe has caused a slight fire.

The neighbors are quickly mobilizing to attend to the victims, as the temperature is expected to fall in the area tonight to twelve negative degrees . For their part, although the authorities have urged citizens to use telecommunications at least to avoid blocking the lines, the main operators will offer free Internet in the next few hours to facilitate rescue work, reports the local newspaper Hürriyet.

Elazig is a locality of provinces with about 422,000 inhabitants located in the immediate vicinity of the Eastern Anatolian fault, one of the main ones that cross Turkey. It is not the main one, that of North Anatolia - where the Anatolian and Eurasian plates collide - but it has registered a strong activity over time. In 2010, Elazig province suffered an earthquake of magnitude 6 that left 51 fatalities.

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