Turkey, Greece reel from earthquake aftermath

At least 22 people were killed and several injured on October 30 (Friday) when a powerful earthquake struck the Turkey’s western coast and parts of Greece.

The scale of the destruction captured on camera showed entire building blocks being reduced to rubble, water gushing through the streets in coastal towns after a Tsunami alert, and people running out of buildings in sheer panic.

Much of the damage occurred in and around Turkey’s Aegean resort city of Izmir, which has three million residents and is filled with high-rise apartment blocks. Izmir is Turkey’s third largest city.

People on social media expressed shock and prayed for Turkey.

Search-and-rescue efforts were underway in at least 17 buildings, AFAD said. Turkish media showed rescuers pulling people from the rubble, including one survivor who was found about six hours after the quake. Emergency teams continued digging after nightfall and cranes lifted concrete slabs from the wreckage.

The earthquake, which the Kandilli Institute said had a magnitude of 6.9, struck at 2:51 p.m. local time (1151 GMT) on October 31 in Turkey and was centered in the Aegean northeast of Samos.

It was felt across the eastern Greek islands and as far as the Greek capital, Athens, and in Bulgaria. In Turkey, it shook the regions of Aegean and Marmara, including Istanbul.

Some of the world’s strongest earthquakes have been registered along a fault line that runs across Turkey to Greece.

In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s northwest, killing more than 17,000 people, including 1,000 in Istanbul.

In Greece, the last deadly quake killed two people on the island of Kos, near Samos, in July 2017.

Relations between Turkey and Greece have been particularly tense, with warships from both facing off in the eastern Mediterranean in a dispute over maritime boundaries and energy exploration rights. The ongoing tension has led to fears of open conflict between the two neighbors and NATO allies.