Four dead in Turkey when strong earthquake hits Aegean Sea

Locals and officials search for survivors in a collapsed building after a strong earthquake shook the Aegean Sea on Friday and was felt in both Greece and Turkey, where some buildings collapsed in Turkey’s coastal Izmir province on October 30, 2020. REUTERS / Tuncay Dersinlioglu

ISTANBUL – A strong earthquake shook the Aegean Sea on Friday and was felt in both Greece and Turkey, where four people were killed when buildings collapsed in the coastal province of Izmir.

People took to the streets in panic in the city of Izmir, witnesses said, after the earthquake hit with a magnitude of up to 7.0.

The shaking could be felt as far away as Istanbul and the Greek islands, where authorities said eight people suffered minor injuries on the island of Samos. High tides were observed in both countries, causing flooding in parts of the Izmir coast.

Turkish state media quoted the Presidency for Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) as saying that four people died, one from drowning, while 120 people were injured.

There were several reports of collapsed buildings with people trapped in rubble in some districts of Izmir and partial property damage in several other provinces where the earthquake was felt, Turkish officials said.

Izmir Mayor Tunc Soyer said that around 20 buildings had collapsed in the province. The Izmir governor said 70 people had been rescued from under the rubble.

Ilke Cide, a doctoral student who was in the Guzelbahce region of Izmir during the earthquake, said he went inland after the waters rose after the earthquake.

“I’m very used to earthquakes … so I didn’t take it very seriously at first, but this time it was really scary,” he said, adding that the earthquake had lasted at least 25-30 seconds.

Traversed by major faults, Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. More than 17,000 people died in August 1999 when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul. In 2011, an earthquake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500 people.

Flood

Ismail Yetiskin, mayor of Izmir’s Seferihisar, said the sea level rose as a result of the earthquake. “There seems to be a small tsunami,” he told NTV broadcaster.

Images on social media showed debris, including refrigerators, chairs and tables, floating down the streets in the deluge. TRT Haber showed that cars in Izmir’s Seferihisar district had been washed away and stacked on top of each other.

Residents of the Greek island of Samos, which has a population of about 45,000, were urged to stay away from coastal areas, Eftyhmios Lekkas, head of the Greek organization for anti-seismic planning, told Skai TV of Greece.

“It was a very big earthquake, it’s difficult to have a bigger one,” Lekkas said.

The high tidal wave warnings were in Samos, where eight people were slightly injured, according to a Greek official.

“We have never experienced anything like this,” said George Dionysiou, the local deputy mayor. “People are panicking.” A Greek police spokesman said some old buildings on the island were damaged and there are no immediate reports of injuries.

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece, who have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over ownership of potential hydrocarbon resources in the eastern Mediterranean, spoke by phone after the earthquake and said they were ready to help each other, Ankara said.

AFAD put the earthquake’s magnitude at 6.6, while the United States Geological Survey said it was 7.0. It struck around 1150 GMT and was felt along Turkey’s Aegean coast and the northwestern Marmara region, media said.

Read next