Work continues to clarify the damage caused by the earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter scale, registered this afternoon in Western Turkey. There were no casualties, but the authorities reported 150 injuries in Istanbul.
The tremor was also felt in a number of cities in Bulgaria.
In some settlements, people received warnings about the disaster on their mobile phones. They were not sent by the BG-ALERT early warning system, but by one used in the operating systems of some mobile phones.
In a comment on the topic, the Minister of Interior Daniel Mitov replied that BG-ALERT did not activate today because there was no need to this:
"It was not activated because there was no need to activate it - the earthquake is outside the territory of Bulgaria, there is no danger or emergency that would require the inclusion of the BG-ALERT system, which is activated by order of the relevant competent authorities when necessary. And this was not necessary. The messages that some subscribers received were from the Google system, namely the owners of phones with the Android operating system".
When asked by a reporter to specify who in principle should activate this system when there is such a situation, Mitov replied:
"The relevant competent authorities. This is the local authorities, already in coordination with the relevant ministries, depending on the assessment of the danger," said the Minister of Interior in Lovech, where he was at the annual report of the local Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior.
Earlier, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov explained that the system is for early warning, and earthquakes cannot be predicted.