Series of earthquakes shake buildings in Turkey's Istanbul

SCREENSHOT/BBC

Turkey's disaster agency has recorded a series of tremors in a matter of minutes, all of them along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, and close to Istanbul.

It is the second tremor of 6.2 magnitude that will be most worrying for Istanbul's 16 million-strong population.

It's the biggest city in Turkey, where a fifth of the country's population lives.

The interior minister says the quake was felt not just in Istanbul but in surrounding provinces too.

'There was a deep rumble - and then panic'

Across Istanbul, residents are still reeling from the shock. Selin Tüter was at work in an office building on the European side of the city when the earthquake hit.

At first she felt the ground give way, sending her off balance. Then she heard a deep rumble, "as if something was punching from underneath".

"When that happened, a lot of people panicked. A lot of people started making a run for it," she tells me.

She explains that many people in Istanbul are wary of earthquakes following the massive shocks that killed 55,000 people in Turkey and Syria in 2023.

No reports of damage yet - Istanbul authorities

Officials from the Istanbul Governorship say they haven't received any reports of earthquake damage yet.

Authorities are still scanning the city and ask members of the public once again not to approach buildings that might be damaged.

Istanbul tremor also felt in the Turkish capital

The biggest of the tremors to hit Istanbul was felt some 275 miles away (440km) in the capital, Ankara, according to Mayor Mansur Yavas.

It's a measure of how powerful the 6.2-magnitude quake was.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first comments, says he is following events closely.