Earthquake kills two at Greek tourist spot
GREECE/TURKEY: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.7 killed two people and injured scores more when it struck near major Turkish and Greek tourist destinations in the Aegean Sea early yesterday.
Local officials said at least two people died and 100 were injured on the Greek holiday island of Kos, a popular destination particularly with British holidaymakers.
Across a narrow Aegean Sea waterway in Turkey’s Bodrum, about 70 people were admitted to hospital, injured in their attempts to flee the quake which struck at 1.31am local time.
The tremor is the second in the broader region exceeding a magnitude of 6.0 this year, a level which can cause considerable damage.
A local hospital official said 100 people were injured, most slightly. Greek authorities had dispatched helicopters to airlift the injured to the larger island of Rhodes for treatment.
‘‘Our primary concern right now is [safeguarding] human life,’’ he said.
Police sources said the roof of a bar in Kos collapsed.
The Greek coastguard said damage was reported to the port of Kos, which is near a tourist strip of cafes and bars.
A passenger ferry was unable to dock at Kos because of the extensive damage.
Several stores were damaged in Bodrum’s Gumbet district as a result of rising sea levels, store owners said.
A local Kos website, Kostoday.com, showed images of rising sea levels and parts of the tourist strip flooded, and large chunks of rubble elsewhere. One showed a picture of a small fishing boat on a road.
The temblor, initially reported as a magnitude 6.9, was very shallow, only 10 kilometres below the seabed, the United States Geological Survey said.
In Turkey, emergency authorities warned citizens about aftershocks, but said there were no casualties or major damage.
Television footage from the Mugla province showed hundreds of people abandoning buildings and waiting on the streets. It showed cars shaking and products falling off shelves at stores across the region.
Mugla Governor Esengul Civelek said initial reports showed there was no major damage, though Mayor Osman Gurun said power outages hit parts of the province. — Reuters