14 Dead As Buildings Collapse

Rescuers dug through heavy blocks of concrete with their bare hands on Friday in a desperate search for survivors from a powerful earthquake that leveled buildings across Greece and Turkey, killing at least 14 people.

The late afternoon quake caused a mini-tsunami on the Aegean island of Samos and a sea surge that turned streets into rushing rivers in one town on Turkey’s west coast.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.0 magnitude tremor hit 14 kilometres (nine miles) off the Greek town of Karlovasi on Samos.

Felt in both Istanbul and Athens, it also created a diplomatic opening for the two historic rivals, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis placing a rare call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to offer his condolences and support.

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.

Aerial footage on Turkey’s NTV television showed entire city blocks turned to rubble.

“Oh my God!” one passerby shouted near a collapsed building in one image that went viral in Turkey.

In another, a crowd let out a relieved cheer and broke out in applause as one woman was pulled out alive in tears.

Izmir’s mayor Tunc Soyer told CNN Turk that 20 buildings had collapsed, with officials saying they were focusing their rescue efforts on 17 of them.

Turkey’s disaster agency reported the death of 12 people, and said nearly 500 were injured, while in Greece two teenagers died on their way home from school on Samos when a wall collapsed.