14 killed as quake jolts Turkey
istanbul — A strong earthquake struck on Friday in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 14 people and injuring hundreds amid collapsed buildings and flooding, officials said.
A small tsunami struck the Seferihisar district south of Izmir, the city in western Turkey that was the worst affected, said Haluk Ozener, director of the Istanbulbased Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.
There were various reports of collapsed buildings with people stuck in the rubble in some of districts of Izmir. At least 12 people were killed in Izmir and 419 were injured, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.
On Greece’s Samos island, where a tsunami warning was issued, two teenagers died after being struck by a wall that collapsed. —
istanbul — Fourteen people were killed in Turkey and Greece after a strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on Friday, bringing buildings crashing down and setting off tidal waves which slammed into coastal areas and islands.
People ran onto streets in panic in the Turkish city of Izmir, witnesses said, after the quake struck with a magnitude of up to 7.0. Neighbourhoods were deluged with surging seawater which swept debris inland and left fish stranded as it receded.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said 12 people died, one due to drowning, while 419 people
were injured. On the Greek island of Samos two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were found dead in an area where a wall had collapsed. Search and rescue operations continued at 17 collapsed or damaged buildings, AFAD said. Izmir’s governor said 70 people had been rescued from under the rubble.
Ilke Cide, a doctoral student who was in Izmir’s Guzelbahce region during the earthquake, said he went inland after waters rose following the earthquake.
“I am very used to earthquakes... so I didn’t take it very seriously at first but this time it was really scary,” he said, adding the earthquake had lasted for at least 25-30 seconds.
Ismail Yetiskin, mayor of Izmir’s Seferihisar, said sea levels rose as a result of the quake. “There seems to be a small tsunami,” he told broadcaster NTV. Footage on social media showed debris including refrigerators, chairs and tables floating through streets on the deluge. TRT Haber showed cars in Izmir’s Seferihisar district had been dragged by the water and piled on top of each other.
Idil Gungor, who runs a hotel in Izmir’s Seferihisar district, said that people were cleaning the debris after the floodwaters receded. She said fish had washed up on the garden of the hotel, around 50 metres from the shore. —