Two killed, over one hundred injured as 6
Two killed, over one hundred injured as 6.7-magnitude earthquake hits Greek, Turkey tourist resorts
Updated: Jul 21, two thousand seventeen Ten:06 IST
By Agence France-Presse , Agence France-Presse, Theologos, Greece
Two people, likely foreign tourists, were killed and more than one hundred people injured on the Greek island of Kos when an earthquake shook popular Greek and Turkish holiday destinations in the Aegean Sea.
The epicentre of the shallow 6.7 magnitude quake was some Ten.Three kilometres (6.Four miles) south of the major Turkish resort of Bodrum, a magnet for holidaymakers in the summer, and 16.Two kilometres east of the island of Kos in Greece, the US Geological Survey said.
«We have two dead and people injured,» a hospital official on Kos told AFP, adding that the victims were killed when the ceiling of a building collapsed.
Kos mayor Georges Kyritsis told Skai radio the two victims were foreigners. A local journalist, interviewed by the same station, said the victims were found in a bustling part of the town.
The Greek secretary of state for the merchant navy Nektarios Santorinios, said the injury toll had risen to 120.
Reports said the state hospital in Bodrum was evacuated after cracks appeared, with fresh patients being examined in a garden outside.
The governor of the southern Mugla province — where Bodrum is located — said some people had been slightly injured after falling out of windows in fright.
Television footage displayed throngs of worried residents and holidaymakers in Bodrum`s streets.
«The fattest problem at the moment are electro-stimulation cuts in certain areas (of the city),» Bodrum mayor Mehmet Kocadon told NTV television.
«There is light harm and no reports that anyone has been killed» in the area, he added.
The quake struck Friday at one hundred thirty one local time (2231 GMT Thursday).
The Adliye mosque in central Bodrum suffered some harm, with police cordoning it off to prevent people being wounded by fallen debris, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
The quake was also felt on the Datca peninsula — also a major resort area — as well as Turkey`s third city of Izmir on the Aegean to the north.
Turkish television said the earthquake triggered high swings off Gumbet near Bodrum which flooded a road and left parked cars stranded. There were no reports of casualties.
An AFP correspondent holidaying in Bodrum said the quake was followed by aftershocks.
«The bed shook a lot. Some bottles fell and broke in the kitchen and the patio,» said Turkish pensioner Dilber Arikan, who has a summer house in the area.
«I screamed I was very panicked because I was alone.»
Erdinc Kalece, 47, and his son Baris, 23, were witnessing out the night in the open air in a makeshift bed outside their house in the Turgutreis district outside Bodrum.
«My father and mother were sleeping, I was driving. It was very bad. The road was shivering. I slowed down, waited. I was not startled but anxious,» said Baris.
Erdinc added: «Now we`re waiting for the aftershock quakes to end.»
Harm caused by a quake in Kos, Greece, July 21, two thousand seventeen is seen in this still photograph uploaded on social media. (Reuters Photo)
The quake was also felt on the Greek island of Rhodes.
«We were very astonished. We were funked and we instantaneously went outside,» Teddy Dijoux, who was holidaying with his family at a Rhodes resort, told AFP.
«That lasted a long time. I quickly gathered up my children to leave the hotel,» said holidaymaker Sylvie Jannot.
Turkey and Greece sit on significant fault lines and have regularly been hit by earthquakes in latest years.
This year alone, Turkey`s western Aegean coast was hit by several significant earthquakes, which brought back memories of past deadly earthquakes.
In June, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake gutted a village on the Greek island of Lesbos, killing a woman and leaving more than fifteen injured. The quake also caused funk on Turkey`s Aegean coast.
On August 17, 1999, a giant earthquake measuring more than 7.0 magnitude near the city of Izmit devastated vast areas in the country`s densely populated northwestern zone, notably around Istanbul, killing over 17,000 people.