People run for their lives as earthquake rocks Greece and Turkey

News24xx.com -  Footage has emerged showing the moment that an earthquake struck Greece and Turkey in the middle of the night. Two women can be seen having a chat at a table at a restaurant in Turkey before the shaking – and panic – begins.

As they start to make their way out of the restaurant along with other customers two men go to help one of them with a baby in a pram. A powerful earthquake struck Greek islands early on Friday morning, damaging buildings and a port, killing at least two people and causing more than 100 injuries.

 

The island of Kos was nearest to the epicentre and appeared to be the worst-hit, with two deaths and structural damage to older buildings. Minor damage – cracks in buildings, smashed windows and wrecked shops – appeared widespread, according to city officials.

 

‘The rest of the island has no problem. It’s only the main town that has a problem,’ Kos Mayor Giorgos Kyritsis told state-run Greek media.

‘The buildings affected were mostly old, and were built before the earthquake building codes were introduced.’

Rescuers were checking for trapped people inside houses after the quake struck in the middle of the night. Mr Kyritsis said the army was mobilised along with emergency services. The island’s port was among structures that sustained damaged and a ferry en route there was not docking, the coast guard said.

 

Giorgos Halkidios, Kos regional government official, said the number of injured was more than 100

‘Two or three of them are in serious condition and are in surgery,’ he said.

He said the injured included people who were underneath a building that collapsed. Ferry services were suspended due to damage at Kos’s main port, where a 14th-century fortress also was damaged. A minaret from an old mosque also was damaged. Greek officials said the quake was 6.5-magnitude. It was centred six miles south of Bodrum, Turkey, and 10 miles east-northeast of Kos with a depth of six miles, according to the US Geological Survey.

 

Turkish disaster officials said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3, and more than 20 aftershocks have been recorded. Esengul Civelek, governor of Mugla province, said there were no casualties according to initial assessments. She said ‘there were minor injuries due to fear and panic’. In Bitez, a resort town about four miles west of Bodrum, the quake sent frightened residents running into the streets.

 

Hotel guests briefly returned to their rooms to pick up their belongings but chose to spend the rest of the night outside, with some using sheets and cushions borrowed from nearby lounge chairs to build makeshift beds.

Greece and Turkey lie in an especially earthquake-prone zone. The authorities later said the number of people injured in the earthquake had risen to more than 120. Several tourists were stranded outside their hotel after the quake sent them streaming onto Lambi Beach on Kos Island.

 

Lauren Duffy, a 20-year-old student from Merseyside, was evacuated along with her mother and sister from the Atlantis Hotel, which was strewn with shattered glass. She said: ‘We were asleep in our hotel room when we were woken by really violent shaking, and we all were screaming and told to evacuate from the hotel.’

 

She said they were able to return to the hotel just long enough to retrieve their passports before they were forced out again by tremors.

 

Ms Duffy said no-one was hurt but the broken glass made the area unsafe. She said most of the stranded tourists there are Dutch, Russian and German.