HOLIDAY COUPLE CAUGHT IN GREEK QUAKE
Tourists flee hotels as act of God sends walls crumbling and rocks pouring in
A COUPLE from North Wales have told how they “ran for their lives” as an earthquake shook the walls of their hotel in Kos.
Two men died and at least 200 people were injured when the 6.7-magnitude quake struck the Greek Island last week.
Owain and Ceri Morris were among thousands of tourists who had to flee their accommodation at 1.30am, describing how stones were “coming through the plaster” of their room at the Oceanis Hotel.
“It was scary,” said Mr Morris, 31, from Abersoch. “We had just gone to sleep when the earth started shaking.
“We put the lights on and could see our bedroom walls shaking. We just ran for our lives. It happened so fast.”
The couple, who are on holiday to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, counted “at least” a further 30 aftershocks after they got outside.
Mr Morris added: “It was a totally unbelievable experience, just to feel the earth shake underneath you. We heard things in the hotel just falling down.
“Everybody was just panicking more when the alarms and electric went off. We had heard that people had died. We heard people screaming and running for their lives.”
Mr Morris and his wife, 38, who now live in Cardiff, spent the rest of the night trying to sleep on chairs in the hotel car park with the 800 other guests.
He said the hotel staff and representsatives were “trying their best in the circumstances” and that they’d managed to get their passports, but most of their belongings were still in their damaged room.
“The building is not safe and we don’t want to go back in,” he said. “Some people have been flown home. We feel lucky to be alive.”
The two men killed, one from Sweden and the other from Turkey, died when a bar, The White Corner Club in Kos’ Old Town, collapsed.
University of Chester student Lauren Duffy, 20, from Merseyside, said glass and broken pieces of marble statues were among the debris strewn near her hotel a short drive from the Old Town.
“We were woken up by really aggressive shaking,” she said. “We didn’t know what it was. You couldn’t find your balance. It was just a scary situation.”
Buildings were also damaged in Bodrum, Turkey, and there was flooding when it was hit by a tsunami shortly after the quake.
Rhydian Hughes, 33, from Pentrefoelas, had just arrived for a family holiday in Bodrum when the earthquake struck.
He said: “We had cleared through passport control and were waiting to pick up our bags when it happened.
“At first I thought it was maybe a large aeroplane landing, as everything began to shake. But then I saw people running out of the hall and the duty free shutting up. It was a very strange experience.”