At least two people were killed on the Greek island of Kos Friday when a magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook the popular summer resort holiday destinations of the Dodecanese Islands in Greece and the Aegean coast of Turkey. The fire department separately said three injured people had been rescued from rubble on Kos. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry confirmed a Turkish citizen was killed in Kos and said a second national in serious condition was being evacuated to Athens for treatment. Hundreds of revelers were in or near the popular White Corner Club in the old town of Kos when the building partially collapsed. Greek officials said at least five other people were seriously injured on Kos as tourists and local residents scrambled out of buildings, some even leaping from balconies. “The table started to shake,” at 1:31 a.m., she told CNN affiliate CNN Greece, adding that the situation was “chaos.”

“Never before had I experienced something like that,” she said. The USGS estimated that approximately 200,000 people in Greece and Turkey felt strong to very strong shaking from the earthquake. It felt like being at a theme park with one of the illusions, an optical illusion where you feel like you’re upside down.”

Tens of thousands of tourists spent the night outdoors on Kos, many sleeping on sunbeds along beaches as a quake-related sea swell subsided. The coast guard also announced the island’s port was damaged in the quake and that a ferry en route there was not docking. Before I could ask ‘what’s happening?’ my boat was dragged toward the shore. “I’ve never experienced such a thing.”

Turkish authorities said some 70 people were treated in hospitals in the resort of Bodrum for minor injuries, mostly sustained during panicked flight from their homes. Istanbul-based Kandilli earthquake research center said the quake caused a small ‘tsunami’ with waters sweeping between 10 and 100 meters (yards) in to the coast, recording more than 160 aftershocks. Authorities said there were no reported injuries of refugees and migrants at camps on the island. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake at magnitude 6.7, and said its epicenter was 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of Bodrum, Turkey, and 10 miles (16 kilometers) east-northeast of Kos about 1:30 AM. The island of Kos was nearest to the epicentre and appeared to be the worst-hit, with two deaths and structural damage to older buildings. “The damage was at the bar and the old part of the town and we had the very unfortunate deaths of the two people.”

The collapsed building dated to the 1930s, according to Kos Mayor Giorgos Kyritsis. “The buildings affected were mostly old and were built before the earthquake building codes were introduced,” the Associated Press reported. "The buildings affected were mostly old and were built before the earthquake building codes were introduced," Kyritsis said. KOS, Greece (AP) — Rescuers are checking for trapped people inside houses on the Greek island of Kos after a powerful earthquake struck the area in the early hours of July 21.
Aftershocks cause panic in the Greek island of Kos after a deadly earthquake that injured hundreds.