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Earthquake rocks southern Greece

At least one person has been killed and several others injured when an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck southern Greece on Sunday, local media reported.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 17:15 June 8, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Dozens of people gather at the main square in Patras after an earthquake struck southwestern Greece.
  • Image Credit: AP
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Athens: Two people were killed and at least 50 others injured when an earthquake struck southern Greece on Sunday, local media reported.

One person was found dead underneath a fallen wall in the village of Kato Achaia, near the epicentre of the 6.5 magnitude earthquake.

At least four people, including a young girl, who had been trapped in houses that had collapsed, were rescued soon after the quake struck, fire officials said.

Some of those hurt had jumped from balconies in panic when the quake struck south of the city of Patras, sending residents out into the streets.

"We have two dead as a result of the earthquake," Greece's Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said. "There are many more injured."

The earthquake, which was felt as far away as Athens, caused panic among villages and damaged homes and a military base in Andravida town.

"Five old buildings have collapsed in the area so far, phone lines are down and people are still out in the streets, too scared to go back," a police official said.

The national Athens-Patras highway was cut after a landslide caused by the quake blocked off the country's main southern road artery, and authorities were working to clear it.

"It was terrible...It was very long and we felt that the town was being flattened," Makis Paraskevopoulos, mayor of Pyrgos near the epicentre, told state TV.

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