ANKARA (AFX) - The fourth powerful earthquake in a week rocked the western Turkish city of Izmir early Friday, causing two deaths and keeping terrified residents on the edge, officials and reports said. The 5.9 magnitude quake struck Turkey's third-largest city around 12:40 am (2140 GMT Thursday), leading to about 30 people suffering broken bones or concussion from jumping off balconies or out of windows, Anatolia news agency reported.
A spokesman for the Izmir governor's office told AFP that a 68-year-old man died of a heart attack while running down the stairs of his house in panic. A 70-year-old woman also died of a heart attack in the nearby city of Aydin, Anatolia reported.
Turkey's Kandilli observatory said the epicenter of the quake was under the Aegean Sea some 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) southwest of Izmir.
The Athens observatory said the quake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale while the US National Earthquake Information Center put its magnitude at 5.8. 'We heard a great big bang and then were shook violently, it was the strongest earthquake we've felt in years,' a retired teacher, Sinan Taskin, told AFP by telephone from Izmir, 300 kilometers (190 miles) south of Istanbul. Izmir has been on edge since Monday when three violent quakes, measuring 5.7, 5.9 and 5.6 respectively, shook the area in one day, leaving some 30 people injured.
Many residents were reluctant to return indoors after Friday's tremor, with Turkish television showing hundreds passing the night huddled around bonfires or sleeping in makeshift tents in parks. Schools were called off in Izmir and the surrounding province bearing the same name for one day.
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 faultlines, 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.
