⁍ 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.
– A tsunami hit the Greek island of Samos after an earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on Friday, killing at least 11 people and causing buildings to tumble down and flooding coastal areas, Reuters reports. “There seems to be a small tsunami,” Ismail Yetiskin, mayor of Izmir’s Seferihisar district, told broadcaster NTV. “We have never experienced anything like it. People are panicking.” He said sea levels rose as a result of the quake, which had a magnitude of up to 7.0. “I am very used to earthquakes … so I didn’t take it very seriously at first but this time it was really scary,” a doctoral student in Izmir tells Reuters. “I went inland after waters rose following the earthquake. People ran onto streets in panic.” Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said 12 people died, one due to drowning, while 419 people were injured. Search and rescue operations continued at 17 collapsed or damaged buildings, AFAD said. Izmir’s governor said 70 people had been rescued from under the rubble. Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. Crisscrossed by major fault lines, Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. More than 17,000 people were killed in August 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude quake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul. In 2011, a quake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-quake/eight-killed-as-strong-earthquake-hits-turkey-and-greek-islands-idUSKBN27F1RC