A car is buried in debris after an
earthquake in Kata Achaia, about 240km west of Athens June 8, 2008.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
ATHENS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A strong earthquake with a
preliminary magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale struck southwestern Greece
Sunday, local media reported.
The quake struck at 15:25 local time (1225 GMT),
leaving one person dead and nearly a dozen injured, said the Athens News Agency.
Some witnesses said the quake lasted 20 to 25
seconds, which was felt in Athens and throughout southern and central Greece,
media reports said.
The earthquake was shallow, roughly 10 kilometers in
depth, with an epicenter near the town of Andravida -- 30 kilometers southwest
of the western port city of Patras, head of Greece's Earthquake Risk Assessment
Committee, Gerasimos Papadopoulos, told reporters and television crews outside
the Athens Observatory.
There have been aftershocks and more are expected to
follow because the epicenter was close to the ground surface, Papadopoulos said.
A strong aftershock with a magnitude of 4.7 on the
Richter scale was felt after half an hour.
Local authorities said there were widespread reports
of collapsed and severely damaged houses in the quake that was felt as far away
as southern Italy.
Greece is one of the world's most earthquake-prone
countries. In 1999, a 5.9-magnitude quake near Athens killed 143 people and left
thousands homeless.
A motorcyclist rides past a destroyed house after a strong earthquake hit Kato Achaia village some 250Km west of Athens June 8, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
ATHENS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Two quake-related fatalities
and 37 injuries were reported in a strong earthquake measuring a magnetite of
6.5 which rocked much of southwest Greece on Sunday.
The earthquake was recorded at 3:25 p.m. local time (1325
GMT) and was felt as far away as capital Athens, some 230 kilometers to the east
of the epicenter. Full story
