⁍ People ran onto streets in panic in the Turkish city of Izmir.
⁍ Search and rescue operations continued at 17 collapsed or damaged buildings.
⁍ Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.
– An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck near the Turkish city of Izmir Friday, according to the US Geological Survey, causing buildings to tumble down and setting off a small tsunami that hit coastal areas in Greece and Turkey. At least 12 people were killed and more than 500 injured, Reuters reports. “I am very used to earthquakes … so I didn’t take it very seriously at first but this time it was really scary,” says a doctoral student in Izmir, which was shaken by the quake for at least 30 seconds. “There seems to be a small tsunami,” says the mayor of Izmir’s Seferihisar district, which was hit hard by the quake. “We have never experienced anything like it,” says a local official on the Greek island of Samos, where two teenagers were found dead after a wall collapsed, per Reuters. “We have never experienced anything like it,” he says. “People are panicking.” In Greece, the coast guard warned people to stay away from the coast, while officials in Turkey urged people to stay away from the water, the AP reports.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-quake/strong-earthquake-kills-14-people-in-turkey-and-greek-islands-idUSKBN27F1RC