Strong earthquake kills two on Greek island of Kos

Buildings were damaged by the quake on Kos

A strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea has killed at least two people on the Greek island of Kos, officials say.

The 6.7-magnitude quake hit 12km (seven miles) north-east of Kos, near the Turkish coast, with a depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said.

At least 20 others were injured on Kos, a popular tourist destination. Some buildings were damaged.

In the Turkish city of Bodrum, several people were injured as they tried to flee the quake.

The earthquake struck at 01:31 on Friday (22:31 GMT Thursday).

British student Naomi Ruddock felt the earthquake in Kos, where she is on holiday with her mother.

“We were asleep and we just felt the room shaking. The room moved. Literally everything was moving. And it kind of felt like you were on a boat and it was swaying really fast from side to side, you felt seasick.”

The roof of a bar on the island collapsed, and a ferry was unable to dock due to damage at the harbour, Greek police said.

Pictures on social media showed people in Bodrum walking with water lapping their ankles and localised flooding, and about 70 people sought hospital treatment for minor injuries.

Kristian Stevens, a British tourist in Didim, 90km (60 miles) from Bodrum, said the building he was in began to “shake like a jelly”.

Turkey and Greece sit on significant fault lines and are regularly hit by earthquakes.

One of the deadliest in recent years hit the heavily populated northwest of Turkey, in 1999, killing some 17,000 people.

BBC