UPDATE: |UK Foreign Office issues Turkey travel update after Istanbul hit by 6.2 earthquake News

British travellers are urged to follow the advice of local authorities

The UK Foreign Office has issued a travel update for Turkey after Istanbul was rocked by a series of tremors, including a 6.2 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday.

The epicentre was some 25 miles south-west of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara and had a depth of about six miles, according to the United States Geological Survey.

It was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3. The disaster and emergency management agency urged residents to stay away from buildings.

The earthquake was felt in neighbouring regions, reports said. Many people rushed out of their homes in panic.

In the advisory the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “Many parts of Turkey regularly experience earthquakes and tremors. These can be a high magnitude, cause damage to infrastructure, and pose a risk to life.

“A 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul, on 23 April 2025. There is a shortage of local accommodation. For the latest information, visit Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority’s (AFAD) earthquake page.

“Follow the advice of the local authorities and monitor local media. See the US Federal Emergency Management Agency guidance about what to do before, during and after an earthquake.”

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said there were no “serious cases” in the earthquake in a statement made on its social media accounts.

Kemal Cebi, the mayor of the Kucukcekmece district in western Istanbul, told local broadcaster NTV that there were “no negative developments yet” but he reported that there were traffic jams and that many buildings were already at risk due to the density of the area.

Turkey is crossed by two major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent.

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6 2023, and a second powerful tremor that came hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and south-eastern Turkish provinces, leaving more than 53,000 people dead.

Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighbouring Syria.

While Istanbul was not impacted by that earthquake, the devastation heightened fears of a similar quake with experts citing the city’s proximity to fault lines.

In a bid to prevent damage from any future quake, both the national government and local administrations started urban reconstruction projects to fortify buildings at risk and started campaigns of demolishing buildings at risk of collapse.

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