Turkey hit by another strong earthquake as shattered country rebuilds after disaster that killed 50,000

ANOTHER powerful earthquake has hit Turkey just weeks after the disaster that killed more than 50,000 people.

A strong 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck central Turkey on Saturday.

Turkey has been hit by another earthquake just weeks after two quakes caused devastation

It was at a depth of 10km, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said, after a further earthquake hit Turkey's Hatay province on Thursday.

The latest quake comes after two catastrophic earthquakes devastated the country on February 6, leaving more than a million homeless and more than 50,000 dead.

The earthquakes, which also rocked neighbouring Syria, caused tens of thousands of deaths and destroyed buildings and infrastructure.

The death toll from the tragedy continues to rise as more bodies are retrieved from the rubble of demolished buildings.

On Friday, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said the death toll in Turkey due to earthquakes rose to 44,218.

With Syria's latest announced death toll of 5,914, the combined death toll in the two countries rose to above 50,000.

In an interview with state broadcaster TRT on Wednesday, Soylu said teams were sifting through two buildings in hard-hit Hatay province in search of further bodies.

Search operations elsewhere have come to an end, he said.

Meanwhile, at least 164,000 buildings have either collapsed or are so damaged that they need to be demolished, said Murat Kurum, Turkeys minister for the environment and urbanisation.

President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month.