Amid a cold breeze, locals, children and the elderly alike lined up for their first pre-dawn or sahoor meal around midnight in the Islahiye district of the southern city of Gaziantep.

Meanwhile, another earthquake hit the region on Thursday morning.

The epicenter of the 5.3-magnitude quake is in the province of Kahramanmaras, just like the previous quakes, the disaster management authority AFAD said.

A dpa reporter in the city of Gaziantep reported feeling strong tremors.

 "All this chaos feels far from the traditional Ramadan vibe," Cafer Polat told dpa.

Following special evening prayers or tarawih marking the start of Ramadan, the local square would traditionally be packed with people until dawn enjoying food stands with special festive lighting decorating the streets and minarets.

This year, streets are largely dark and deserted, however, and mosques are damaged. Most survivors have left the region to mostly safer areas in western Turkey.

On Feb. 6, a quake with magnitude 7.7 was followed just hours later by another of magnitude 7.6, shaking south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria. In total, almost 57,000 people were killed and millions were left homeless.

Nearly 50 days later, many still live in tents with limited space and lack proper food, clean water, showers and toilets.

Polat and his family of eight, including three children, live in a makeshift tent in central Islahiye. He lost several relatives, his home, car and his bakery shop in the quake.

He gets a free breakfast box delivered by the city, but notes that it contains "only a tomato and a few olives."

"Our first prayers this Ramadan go out to our lost ones. The image of destroyed minarets and this silence depress me," Sinan Özdemir say as he and his 10-year-old son Mutlu heads for prayers in a tent behind the damaged Sıddıka Tayyar Mosque.

In the next tent, local women separately join prayers as the muezzin calls people to prayers through a speaker.

"We hope such gatherings even in tents will serve as a group therapy for the locals," the mosque’s Imam Muhammed Aydın tells dpa as he concludes the prayers.