A powerful
6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the western coast of Turkey and the Greek
island of Lesbos on Monday, killing one woman and rattling buildings from the
Aegean Turkish province of Izmir to the Greek capital Athens.
The
epicenter of the quake was about 84 km (52 miles) northwest of the Turkish
coastal city of Izmir and 15 km south of Lesbos, the European-Mediterranean
Seismological Centre (EMSC) said on its website. The National Observatory of
Athens put it slightly lower at 6.1.
Extensive
damage was reported at a village on Lesbos, which was at the forefront of a
migration crisis two years ago when hundreds of thousands of war refugees
landed there seeking a gateway into Europe.
TV footage
showed collapsed buildings and debris blocking narrow streets at Vrisa, a
community of around 600 people to the south of the island.
"Tens
of buildings have collapsed and roads are blocked off," said Marios
Apostolides, the divisional commander of the fire brigade.
A woman,
believed to be about 60, was crushed by the roof of her home and died, the
island's mayor said. Local officials said at least 10 people were injured.
The quake
was felt as far away as the Greek capital of Athens, some 367 km (228 miles)
southwest of the island.
Major
geological fault lines cross the region and small earthquakes are common,
though anything higher than 5.5 is rare. Anything exceeding that is capable of
causing extensive damage.
"The
trembling was really bad. Everything in my clinic started shaking wildly, we
all ran outside with the patients," said Didem Eris, a 50-year-old dentist
in Izmir's Karsiyaka district. "We are very used to earthquakes as people
of Izmir but this one was different. I thought to myself that this time we were
going to die."
Social media
users who said they were in western Turkey reported a strong and sustained
tremor.
"We
will be seeing the aftershocks of this in the coming hours, days and
weeks," said Haluk Ozener, head of Turkey's Kandilli Observatory, adding
that the aftershocks could have magnitudes of up to 5.5.
More than
600 people died in October 2011 in Turkey's eastern province of Van after a
quake of 7.2 magnitude and powerful aftershocks. In 1999, two massive
earthquakes killed about 20,000 people in the densely populated northwest of
the country.
REUTERS*
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