ISTANBUL, April 23, (AP): An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul and other areas on Wednesday, Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency said. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries in the metropolis of 16 million. The earthquake had a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey, with its epicenter about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Istanbul, in the Sea of Marmara.

It was felt in the neighboring provinces of Tekirdag, Yalova, Bursa and Balikesir and in the city of Izmir, some 550 kilometers south of Istanbul. There were several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3. The incident, which started at 12:49 p.m. during a public holiday when many children were out of school and celebrating in the streets, caused widespread panic in Istanbul, which is on tenterhooks due to the looming threat of a major earthquake.

Panicked residents rushed from their homes and buildings into the streets. The disaster and emergency management agency urged people to stay away from buildings. Leyla Ucar, a personal trainer, said she was exercising with her student on the 20th floor of a building when they felt intense shaking. "We shook incredibly.

It threw us around, we couldn’t understand what was happening, we didn’t think of an earthquake at first because of the shock of the event,” she said. "It was very scary.” Senol Sari, a 51-year-old resident who fled to a park nearby his house, told The Associated Press he was with his children in the living room of his flat on the third floor of an apartment building when he heard a loud noise and the building started shaking.

"We immediately protected ourselves from the earthquake and waited for it to pass, then calmly walked away from the house," Sari said. "Of course, we were scared during the earthquake. We were worried that it would continue. Since the (great) Istanbul earthquake is (still) an expected earthquake, our concerns continue.”

Cihan Boztepe, 40, was one of those who hurriedly fled to the streets with his family in order to avoid a potential collapse. Boztepe, standing next to his sobbing child, told AP that he was living in Batman province, an area close to the southern part of Turkey where the 2023 quakes hit, and that Wednesday's tremor felt weaker and that he wasn’t as scared.