Quake hits Greece, Turkey; two killed

Nearly 500 people hurt in ‘terrifying’ predawn event.

A powerful earthquake shook beach resorts Friday in Greece and Turkey, killing two tourists who were crushed when a building collapsed on a bar in the Greek island of Kos and injuring nearly 500 others across the Aegean Sea region.

Only a few miles apart, Kos and the Turkish resort of Bodrum were hit hours before dawn by the shallow undersea quake that caused a 2-foot sea swell and havoc among residents and thousands of vacationers at bars and restaurants.

The U.S. Geological survey measured the quake as being of magnitude 6.7, with Greek and Turkish estimates a fraction lower.

“It was shocking, terrifying,” Kos resident Vassilis Megas told The Associated Press. “The whole house shook back and forth. People ran out into streets. We did too, and stayed out all night.”

Two men — from Turkey and Sweden — were killed when a collapsing wall smashed into White Corner Club, a popular bar in the Old Town of Kos. Several others were seriously injured and airlifted to larger hospitals in Greece — one person had to have a leg amputated and another had life-threatening head injuries, doctors said.

Many of the other injuries occurred when tourists and residents scrambled out of buildings and even leapt from balconies. Hundreds of revelers were in the White Corner Club at the time.

“It was shaking a bit, and I was like, ‘OK.’ Then everything. I saw the bar just floating around and drinks flying all over the place. I saw people freezing and then running out, pushing,” said Linda Lundgren, who works at a nearby bar.

“I saw every bartender jumping over the bar. I was getting the roof out of my head because it was falling, and then we came out and I was trying to find my staff, and everything just turned black,” she said.

The quake came in the midst of Greece and Turkey’s vital summer tourism industry. Afterward, many people spent the night outside, sleeping on sunbeds and at cafés.

Most of the injuries, about 350, occurred in Turkey, in Bodrum and other beach resorts, as people fled buildings and as the sea swell flung cars off the road and pushed boats ashore.

NIKIFOROS PITTARAS / ASSOCIATED PRESS A Greek Orthodox church on the Greek island of Kos sits damaged Friday after a powerful early morning earthquake. The quake also struck the nearby Turkish resort town of Budrum, injuring hundreds.