The mayor of Ankara has called for an investigation of "the presence of a seismic ship" in the Aegean Sea in order to determine whether it has anything to do with the earthquake registered there at the same time.

According to Melih Gökçek, Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkish authorities blame for the unsuccessful coup attempt last summer, may be preparing, with the help of foreign powers, an earthquake which will damage the Turkish economy, reported Reuters.

"No matter what they say, we continue to worry about the possibility of an artificial earthquake," wrote Gökçek in his profile on Twitter. He added that "the Gullenist terrorist organisation FETO has planned quakes before. Their plan failed after their strategy was made public on time. But now, they are trying to create an economic crisis with the help of an artificial quake."

According to Gökçek, the ship was in the area of Çanakkale on Monday. Several quakes were felt in the region in the last few days.