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IZMIR - Turkish Daily News
Early yesterday morning a 5.9-magnitude earthquake became the fourth powerful temblor in five days to shake the western Turkish city of Izmir, sparking panic throughout the city where 37 people were hospitalized for broken bones or concussion as a result of jumping to apparent safety from balconies and out of windows. Two elderly people were reported to have died from heart attacks during the tremor, the Anatolia news agency reported. Many residents in Turkey's third largest city had spent nights sleeping outside their damaged, unsafe properties during in week that was beset by hundreds of aftershocks before this the latest earthquake occurred panicking the already terrified residents of the coastal Aegean city
In a bid to calm the ensuing panic, İzmir Governor's Office denied escalating rumors that the city was soon to be hit by a major, much greater earthquake.
Despite frequent announcements that a major earthquake was not imminent, many buildings were nevertheless evacuated as a precaution
Call for vigilance:
Turkey's top seismologist warned residents to be vigilant and stay away from damaged or derelict buildings as the region, which is crossed by several fault lines, was likely to be shaken by more earthquakes.
"There is intense seismic activity in the region. We expect this activity to continue for some time but we cannot say until when," Gulay Barbarosoglu, the head of the Kandilli observatory told journalists in Istanbul.
"The people of Izmir need to be vigilant and careful, but there is no need to panic," she added.
Izmir Municipality has prepared a project called Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas Against Seismic Disaster (RADIUS) to predict scenarios based on the Izmir fault-line.
According to the project, Izmir is located on active fault-lines and the districts of Balcova, Inciralti, Bostanli and Karsiyaka were determined to be the regions most at risk in terms of possible earthquakes. The RADIUS project has provided the necessary information in the event of a possible earthquake and destruction scenarios. According to RADIUS, the fault lines named "Graben" in the Gediz, Kucuk Menderes, Buyuk Menderes districts in the Aegean Region are located in the First Degree Earthquake Danger Region.
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Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun)and may all your New Year Eve wishes come true.I wish you to have a year of 2006 filled with 365 days of fun and many successes"
