Updated on: April 23, 2025 / 10:07 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Istanbul — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency said. There were no reports of serious damage or major injuries, but many people poured out of buildings in Istanbul in fear, looking for information on their phones and calling loved ones.
Dozens of people were injured as they attempted to flee buildings in a panic, some jumping from windows, Istanbul’s governor said, but none of them critically.
The earthquake had a shallow depth of about 6 miles, according to the United States Geological Survey. Its epicenter was some 25 miles southwest of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara.
The quake was felt in several neighboring provinces and in the city of Izmir, some 340 miles south of Istanbul. The quake struck at 12:49 p.m. during a public holiday when many children were out of school and celebrating in the streets, forcing authorities in Istanbul to cancel events.
“By 3:12 pm, 51 aftershocks — the largest of which was 5.9 magnitude — had been recorded,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on social media.
Yerlikaya said earlier that authorities had not received reports of collapsed buildings. He told HaberTurk television, however, there had been reports of damage to buildings.
“Due to panic, 151 of our citizens were injured from jumping from heights,” the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement. “Their treatments are ongoing in hospitals, and they are not in life-threatening condition.”
People sit on the ground and in tents in Millet Garden in Istanbul’s Bagcilar district after evacuating buildings in a panic following a 6.2 magnitude earthquake centered south of the Turkish city, April 23, 2025. Yagiz Ekrem Ciftci/Anadolu/Getty
Many residents flocked to parks, school yards and other open areas to avoid being near buildings in case of collapse or subsequent aftershocks. Some people pitched tents in parks.
“Thank God, there does not seem to be any problems for now,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an event marking the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day holiday. “May God protect our country and our people from all kinds of calamities, disasters, accidents and troubles.”
Mayor Mehmet Ergun Turan of Istanbul’s historic Fatih district, which houses the famed Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, told local media there was no damage or collapse reported.
Kemal Cebi, the mayor of Kucukcekmece district in western Istanbul, told local broadcaster NTV that there were “no negative developments yet,” but he reported traffic jams and said many buildings were potentially at risk due to the density of the area.
Turkey is crossed by two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb. 6, 2023, and a second powerful tremor that came hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern Turkish provinces, leaving more than 53,000 people dead. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.
