Istanbul, Turkiye – For five terrifying seconds, buildings shook, shelves toppled, and panic rippled through Istanbul, Turkiye’s cultural and economic heart.
The ground beneath Istanbul trembled at 12:49pm (09:49 GMT) on Wednesday, sending millions scrambling into the streets as a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck in the sea off the city’s western coast. Several smaller aftershocks have followed, with magnitudes of between 3.5 and 5.9.
