The Press

Strong quake kills two, injures many at tourist spot

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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, Yiorgos Hadjimarko­u, the head of the South Aegean region, said.

‘‘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 because of 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 showed images of rising sea levels and parts of the tourist strip flooded, and large chunks of rubble elsewhere. One showed the 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. – Reuters

 ?? PHOTO: REUTERS ?? People sleep in the street in Kos, Greece, after an earthquake in the Agean Sea between Greece and Turkey.
PHOTO: REUTERS People sleep in the street in Kos, Greece, after an earthquake in the Agean Sea between Greece and Turkey.

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