Fear Grips Istanbul Amid Earthquake Series
The recent series of earthquakes in Istanbul has caused widespread fear and panic among residents, including German celebrities Natascha Ochsenknecht and Harald Glööckler. Both shared their harrowing experiences on Instagram, visibly shaken by the events they witnessed.
Ochsenknecht, a 60-year-old television personality, explained, „We experienced it all here, we ran out of the hall like crazy.“ She was in Istanbul with Glööckler filming for a television show. At the start of her video, she reassured her followers that she was safe. „What can I say, everyone is outside here,“ she added. In a subsequent video, she revealed that she was staying in a hotel room on the 34th floor, indicating she had packed her belongings and would not be sleeping there. However, in a video posted Thursday morning from her hotel bed, she stated that she ended up sleeping in her room after all.
Designer Glööckler, sitting in a car, recounted his hurried escape from the building. „That was so intense,“ he remarked. He mentioned that he was staying in a hotel room on the 33rd floor, expressing his reluctance to be there during the tremors.
Berlin comedian Tülin Sezgin, known for her role as ‚Conny from the Block‘, also shared her panic in an Instagram video, describing how she rushed out of a store. „I’m shaking all over, I had to get some water first,“ said the 37-year-old, who recalled experiencing the devastating earthquake in Istanbul in 1999 that resulted in over 18,000 deaths.
On Wednesday, Istanbul experienced multiple tremors, with the strongest recorded by the disaster service Afad at 6.2 magnitude just before 1:00 PM local time, centered in the Marmara Sea off the city. Several aftershocks ranging from 4 to 5 in magnitude followed. Turkey is situated in one of the most seismically active regions of the world, with more than one million buildings in Istanbul deemed not earthquake-resistant.