Three injured as flurry of quakes hits eastern Turkey

ANKARA, Jan 25 (AFP) - Three people were injured Tuesday when a flurry of earthquakes, the strongest of which measured 5.5 on the Richter scale, rattled eastern Turkey on Tuesday, Anatolia news agency reported.
The epicenter of the tremors was at the town of Hakkari in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeastern corner, several kilometers (miles) from the borders with Iran and Iraq, according to the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory.
The quakes caused panic in Hakkari as well as in the neighboring provinces of Van, Sirnak, Batman and Siirt, sending residents running into snow-covered streets, television footage showed.
Three people were hospitalized in Hakkari with injuries they sustained after jumping from balconies following the biggest tremor which struck at 6:44 pm (1644 GMT), local officials told Anatolia.
Cracks appeared in the walls of the state hospital in the town and several buildings in Sirnak, the agency said.
The main tremor was preceded by two milder ones which measured 4.8 and 4.4 on the Richter scale and was followed by three others whose magnitude ranged between 3.9 and 4.2, according to Kandilli.
Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, where some 20,000 people were killed in two massive tremors in August and November 1999.

01/25/2005 18:54 GMT - AFP