Moderate quakes shake western Turkey, no casualties

ANKARA, Jan 13 (AFP) - Two moderate quakes, measuring 4.1 and 4.2 on the open-ended Richter scale, shook western Turkey on Thursday, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The epicenter of the quakes was the town of Kirkagac in Manisa province, the Istanbul-based Kandilli seismological institute said.
The first tremor struck at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) and the second one at 3:59 pm (1339 GMT), it added.
A smaller earthquake, measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale, also shook the nearby town of Soma, the institute said.
Soma governor Mehmet Oklu was quoted by Anatolia as saying that they had so far received no reports of damage or casualties.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, where some 20,000 people were killed in two massive tremors in August and November 1999.

01/13/2005 15:18 GMT - AFP