Is it water? Is it the harbinger of an earthquake? Residents of an eastern Turkish village are eager to find out the cause of strange sounds originating from underground for the past two weeks. They contacted authorities and a crew from the local branch of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is now investigating the case in Meydandere, a village near the central part of Siirt province.

Villagers claimed the sounds are accompanied by a few seconds of tremors as AFAD crews accompanied by geology engineers examined the ground on Sunday. Cahit Akkoyun, head of AFAD’s Siirt branch, told reporters that they looked into possible cracks in the soil, especially on the higher ground in and around the village but the exact cause of the sounds would be clear only after a comprehensive geological study of the area.

Necmettin Baykara, the mukhtar of the village who requested the authorities’ help to investigate the phenomenon, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that sounds and tremors were especially felt at night, "waking up" the village. "They come from the deep. All houses are shaken. We thought at first it was earthquake but there was no earthquake in any nearby place. Then we thought they may stem from trucks carrying material to construction sites but there is no construction of any kind near our village," he said. Baykara said they also considered the possibility of movement of underground waters, noting that their village was located some 4 kilometers from a dam but they were still unsure.

Sabri Yıldırım, a villager, said they were all worried about the sounds. "I have never heard such horrible sounds in my life. I heard them at midnight, at 1 a.m., 2 a.m. and they were definitely from the depths of earth. People flee their houses at night when they hear it and we cannot sleep anymore," he told Ihlas News Agency (IHA). Ibrahim Şen, another villager, said at first they thought it was an explosion and people fled in panic when they heard the sound around midnight. "It was at its highest twice and people were screaming. We have 170 households here and everybody is afraid," he said.