Damascus: A 5.4 magnitude earthquake occurred on Thursday night in Idlib province of northwestern Syria. The depth of the earthquake, which occurred at 10.47 pm local time, is 18.8 km. Its epicenter was 61 km from the city of Idlib, the capital of the province of the same name.
According to the news agency Xinhua, the earthquake could be felt in the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern province of Aleppo.
Another 3.4-magnitude earthquake struck the northwestern coastal province of Latakia at 11:17 p.m. local time. The second epicenter of the earthquake was located 50 km from Latakia, the capital of the province of the same name, at a depth of 46 km.
Witnesses told the news agency by phone that locals in the coastal province saw dust falling from the walls of their buildings and panicked and fled into the streets. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that people took to the streets in many areas of Syria after the tremors.
Northern Syria was badly hit by earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 centered in southeastern Turkey on 6 February.
The Syrian Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that the final death toll from the earthquake in Syria is 1,414, while the number of injured people has reached 2,357.
The ministry’s count of casualties from the quake only includes quake-hit areas under government control.
Meanwhile, the latest figures from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights showed that the earthquake killed around 7,000 people in Syria’s government- and rebel-held areas.