Nmber of people injured in Aegean quakes grows to 500

KOS, Greece — A powerful earthquake shook beach resorts Friday in Greece and Turkey, killing two tourists 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 two-foot (0.6-me 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 a 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.