Nightmare holiday
200 hurt as tremors cause panic
KOS: A powerful earthquake sent a building crashing down on tourists at a bar on the Greek holiday island of Kos, killing two and striking panic that reached the shores of nearby Turkey. Some 200 people were injured in the tumult.
Rescue authorities said that two men – a Turk and a Swede – died in the collapse at the White Corner Club when the 6.5-magnitude quake struck at about 1.30am, rattling Greek islands and the Turkish Aegean coast in a region where seismic activity is common. The dead vacationers were not named.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry confirmed a Turkish citizen was killed in Kos and said a second national in serious condition was being evacuated to Athens for treatment. The country has also sent a vessel to the island to bring some 200 Turkish tourists home.
Hundreds of revellers were in or near the popular White Corner Club in the old town of Kos when the building partially collapsed.
Greek officials said at least five other people were seriously injured on Kos as tourists and local residents scrambled out of buildings, some even leaping from balconies. Five of the injured were being transported by helicopter to a hospital on the island of Crete.
“There was banging. There was shaking. The light was swinging, banging on the ceiling, crockery falling out of the cupboards, and pans were making noise,” said Christopher Hackland, a Scottish diving instructor.
“There was a lot of screaming and crying and hysterics coming from the hotel. It felt like being at a theme park in an optical illusion where you feel like you’re upside down.”
Tens of thousands of tourists spent the night outdoors on Kos, many sleeping on sunbeds along beaches as a quake-related sea swell subsided. The quake damaged churches, an old mosque, and the port’s 14th century castle, along with old buildings in the town.
In nearby Turkey, the quake caused cracks on walls of some buildings in the resort of Bodrum, flooded the lower floors of sea-front hotels and restaurants and sent moored boats crashing toward the shore.
Boat captain Metin Kestaneci, 40, told the private Dogan news agency that he was asleep on his vessel when the quake hit.
“There was first a noise and then a roar. Before I could ask `what’s happening?’ my boat was dragged towards the shore. We found ourselves on the shore,” Kestaneci said. “I’ve never experienced such a thing.”
Turkish authorities said some 70 people were treated in hospitals in the resort of Bodrum for minor injuries, mostly sustained during panicked flight from their homes. But damage was light and they expect life will soon return to normal, encouraging tourists to continue their holidays.
Istanbul- based Kandilli earthquake research centre said the quake caused a small tsunami with waters sweeping between 10m and 100m in to the coast, recording more than 160 aftershocks.
Several Greek government ministers, as well as rescuers with sniffer dogs and structural engineers travelled to Kos overnight to coordinate the rescue effort. The British Foreign Office warned travellers of the possibility of aftershocks, urging them to follow the advice of the local authorities.
Authorities said there were no reported injuries of refugees and migrants at camps on the island. — AP