19 dead after huge 7.0-magnitude tremor collapses buildings in Turkey, Greece

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People walk past a destroyed house on the Greek island of Samos after a powerful earthquake hit Greece and Turkey on Oct. 30. (Eurokinissi/AFP/Getty Images)

At least people have been killed in Turkey and Greece after a strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on October 30, bringing buildings crashing down and setting off tidal waves which slammed into coastal areas and islands.

People ran onto streets in panic in the Turkish city of Izmir, witnesses said, after the quake struck with a magnitude of up to 7.0. Neighbourhoods were deluged with surging seawater which swept debris inland and left fish stranded as it receded.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said 17 people died, one due to drowning, while 709 people were injured. On the Greek island of Samos two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were found dead in an area where a wall had collapsed.

Residents and rescue teams search for survivors at a collapsed building in Izmir, Turkey, after a strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on Oct. 30. (Tuncay Dersinlioglu/Reuters)

Search and rescue operations continued at 17 collapsed or damaged buildings in Izmir, AFAD said. Authorities were setting up tents with a total capacity of 2,000 people near areas with the highest damage, Urbanisation Minister Murat Kurum said.

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

“I am very used to earthquakes ... so I didn’t take it very seriously at first but this time it was really scary,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying, adding the earthquake had lasted for at least 25-30 seconds.

Flooding

Seawater covers floods a square after an earthquake at the port of Vathi on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, Greece, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Svarnias)

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

Footage on social media showed debris including refrigerators, chairs and tables floating through streets on the deluge. TRT Haber showed cars in Izmir’s Seferihisar district had been dragged by the water and piled on top of each other.

Idil Gungor, who runs a hotel in Izmir’s Seferihisar district, told broadcaster NTV that people were cleaning the debris after the floodwaters receded. She said fish had washed up on the garden of the hotel, around 50 metres (55 yards) from the shore.

Residents and rescue workers search for survivors after a building collapsed in the coastal province of Izmir, Turkey, on October 30. (Tuncay Dersinlioglu/Reuters)

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 Greece’s organisation for anti-seismic planning, told Greece’s Skai TV.

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

High tidal wave warnings were in place in Samos, where eight people were also injured, according to a Greek official.

“We have never experienced anything like it,” said George Dionysiou, the local vice-mayor. “People are panicking.” A Greek police spokesman said there was damage to some old buildings on the island.

Solidarity in difficult times

A collapsed building in Izmir on Oct. 30, 2020. (Ismail Gokmen/AP)

The leaders of Turkey and Greece - caught up in a bitter dispute over exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean - spoke by phone and expressed hopes that both countries would see a speedy recovery from the quake, Turkey’s presidency said.

Both leaders said they were ready to help the other country if needed and emphasised the importance of solidarity.

“Whatever our differences, these are times when our people need to stand together,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a tweet.

“That two neighbors show solidarity in difficult times is more valuable than many things in life,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wrote in a tweet responding to Mistotakis.

Damaged buildings are seen following the earthquake at the port of Vathy on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, Greece, on Oct. 30, 2020. Michael Svarnias/AP

According to Reuters, cooperation between the two countries after the devastating 1999 earthquake led to a period of warmer ties between them.

AFAD put the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.6, while the US Geological Survey said it was 7.0. It was felt along Turkey’s Aegean coast and the northwestern Marmara region, media said.

The Washington Post said it was the second major earthquake to hit Turkey this year. In January, at least 41 people were killed in an earthquake that struck Elazig in central Turkey, where questions were raised about the whether the government was adequately enforcing building codes.

A woman reacts as search and rescue work continues in Izmir, Turkey on October 30, 2020. Lokman Ilhan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Turkey sits atop the Anatolian plate, a block of the earth’s crust that is slowly rotating counterclockwise and shifting west with time — about an inch of movement every year. But pent-up stress caused by collisions with the African plate and Eurasian plate result in frequent earthquakes.

Most of Turkey’s big quakes over the years have occurred along the North Anatolian Fault, which runs across northern Turkey along the Pontic Mountains.

Occasionally, quakes occur in the country’s western zones, the result of dense, oceanic crust sinking and forcing the ground further east upward.

The quake was the strongest in nearly a decade to strike Turkey. In October 2011, a 7.1 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing more than 600 people./.

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