site.btaUPDATED Turkiye-Epicentred Earthquake Sends Tremors through Bulgaria

An earthquake measuring 6.3 points on the Richter scale shook Istanbul and the surrounding area at 12:49 PM local time on Wednesday, Turkish media reported, quoting the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority. The shockwaves reached Bulgaria and were felt across the country, but mostly in the south. No people hurt or damage to property is reported in Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said that the epicentre was 140 km east of Malko Tarnovo, 200 km east of Burgas and 460 km southeast of Sofia.

The tremor appeared to be strongest in Burgas. BTA saw people fleeing their homes on higher floors of residential buildings. Many schools went ahead with evacuating their students. Tall streetlights in the city swayed in the tremor. The quake was felt across the southern Bulgarian Haskovo Region, the officers on duty at the local administration said. In Yambol, it felt like three waves. Local people on the higher floors of residential buildings told BTA they were really scared. In Kardzhali, the quake was equally perceptible on the high floors of buildings and lower down. 

About a minute before the quake started, some people received a warning message on their phones. 

Interior Minister Daniel Mitov commented for journalists that the BG-Alert early warning system had not been activated over the earthquake in Turkiye because there was no need for it. He specified that the messages received by some subscribers were disseminated by Google's system through the Android Earthquake Alerts service, which only works on devices with the Android operating system. "The earthquake is outside the territory of Bulgaria, there is no danger or state of emergency that would require the activation of the BG-Alert system," he clarified and explained that it is activated by order of the relevant competent authorities when necessary.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, too, was asked by journalists why the BG-Alert early warning system for disasters worked partially. He replied that the information was received from operating systems that are on Android. "BG-Alert does not do early warning for earthquakes. No system has such a capability given the earthquake as a disaster. Natural and artificial intelligence cannot yet predict the occurrence of earthquakes, more so in the territory of another country. Not that the system has not worked," Zhelyazkov said.