The massive earthquake that struck in the Aegean Sea last Friday has killed dozens.
Rescue workers in Greece and Turkey are continuing to search for survivors, with most of the damage noted on the west coast of Turkey where 71 people number the dead so far and more than 900 have been injured after eight buildings collapsed and 26 more were so badly damaged that Turkey’s Vice President Fouat Oktay said they would be demolished. A mini tsunami was triggered by the 6.7 magnitude quake which caused floods though the US Geologicl Survey rated the earthquake at 7 and Istanbul’s Kandili Institute said it measured 6.9. Its epicentre was northeast of Samos.
Three days onwards, hopes for more survivors are fading though 70-year-old Ahmet Citim was pulled out alive from a collapsed building after being tapped for 34 hours. “I never lost hope,” he told the media.
On the island of Samos, two teenagers were killed and 19 people were injured. The two teenagers were Aris and Clairi, aged 17 and 15 respectively, who happened to be sitting on stairs talking after school when a wall fell and crushed them.
READ MORE: Samos hit by mini tsunami after Friday’s 6.7-magnitude tremor
Damage was noted in other Aegean islands including Ikaria.
Australia’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Makarios sent a message of solidarity. “With deep sorrow and pain, we observe from the distant Antipodes, the images of destruction that have come to us from the areas affected by the earthquake which has struck both Greece and Turkey and in particular the island of Samos and City of Smyrna. Unfortunately, the loss of human lives is now being recorded,” he said.
Despite tense relations over Turkey’s breaches of Greek water territory in the eastern Mediterranean there were mutual messages of solidarity following the earthquake.