International News

BODRUM, Turkey, July 21, (APP/AFP) – At least two people were
killed on the Greek island of Kos Friday when a magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook the popular summer resort holiday destinations of the Dodecanese Islands in Greece and the Aegean coast of Turkey.
The epicentre of the quake was approximately 10.3 kilometres (6.4
miles) south of the major Turkish resort of Bodrum, a magnet for holidaymakers in the summer, and 16.2 kilometres east of the island of Kos in Greece, the US Geological Survey said.
It had a depth of 10 kilometres, USGS said.
Two people were killed on the Greek island of Kos, a hospital
official on the island told AFP, saying they had been killed when the ceiling of a building collapsed.
Emergency services said the affected area was a bar in the centre of
Kos town. There was no immediate information on the identity of the dead.
The mayor of Kos Georges Kyritsis said several people were injured.
In the Turkish resort of Bodrum, television pictures showed throngs
of worried residents and holidaymakers in the streets.
“The biggest problem at the moment are electricity cuts in certain
areas (of the city),” Bodrum mayor Mehmet Kocadon told NTV television.
“There is light damage and no reports that anyone has been killed” in
the area.
Reports said the state hospital in Bodrum was evacuated after cracks
appeared, with incoming 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 panic.
The Adliye mosque in central Bodrum suffered some damage, 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 waves off
Gumbet near Bodrum which flooded the 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 scared because I was alone.”
Erdinc Kalece, 47, and his son Baris, 23, were seeing out the night
in the open air in the Turgutreis district outside Bodrum.
The quake was also felt on the Greek island of Rhodes.