Strong quake off Turkish and Greek coasts kills two, injures at least 500

A powerful earthquake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos in the early hours of Friday, and causing disruption in the nearby Turkish tourist hub of Bodrum
Friday, 21 July 2017 16:53

A powerful overnight earthquake shook holiday resorts in Greece and Turkey, injuring nearly 500 people and leaving two tourists dead on the Greek island of Kos, where revelers at a bar were crushed in a building collapse.

A Turkish and a Swedish tourist, aged 39 and 22 years, died when the roof of a popular bar collapsed, Greek police said. Authorities on Kos said thirteen people injured were airlifter to other Greek hospitals, include a foreign national who had to have a leg amputated and another with life-threatening head injuries. On Kos, around 115 people were injured, including tourists of various nationalities -- 12 of them seriously. More than 350 people visited hospitals in Turkey, though most had only light injuries.

Several hundred thousand vacationers and locals in the two countries were kept awake by dozens of aftershocks that followed the main quake, with many sleeping outdoors on sunbeds or slumped on cafe tables.

In neighbouring Turkey, authorities said some 350 people were hurt, most with light injuries as they fled buildings. Some of the injuries were caused as tourists and local residents scrambled out of buildings and even leapt from balconies after the 6.5-magnitude quake struck.

Turkey sent a vessel to Kos to bring some 200 Turkish tourists home and named the dead tourist as Sinan Kurdoğlu. The foreign ministry said a second national in serious condition was being evacuated to Athens for treatment.

The quake caused cracks on walls of some buildings in the Turkish resort of Bodrum flooded the lower floors of sea-front hotels and restaurants and sent moored boats crashing toward the shore. The İstanbul-based Kandilli earthquake research centre said the small "tsunami" pushed sea water up 100 meters (yards) inland.