A huge fire that spread to dozens of containers continued to burn Tuesday night for a second day in a row at the port of Iskenderun in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria, as a result of a strong earthquake on Monday, France-Presse and Agerpres reported.

Images released by Turkish television showed a huge plume of black, thick smoke billowing over colorful containers stored at a berth in this Mediterranean port.

The disaster began late Monday afternoon when one of the containers toppled on top of the others in one of the many aftershocks of the first 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

Since then, many attempts have been made to extinguish the flames, including with the help of fire brigades from Istanbul, according to a statement from the mayor of the metropolis, Ekrem Imamoglu.

Turkish authorities have also sent a coast guard ship equipped to fight the fire, but the flames continue to burn and pollution levels in the area could increase.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Sealand, a subsidiary of Danish shipping company Maersk, said “the earthquake caused significant damage to logistics and transport infrastructure in the Pazardzhik Kahramanmarash area, the epicenter of the earthquake, including the port of Iskenderun” in the neighboring region. Hatay Province.. Sealand also announced the suspension of all operations at that port.

Hatay province, located on the border with Syria, is one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake, which killed more than 7,000 people in the two countries on Tuesday night.​​

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