Kos earthquake kills tourists, ‘splits’ port

A massive 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the island of Kos on Friday killing a 39-year-old Turk and a 27-year-old Swede according to reports.

The earthquake hit 12km northeast of Kos with a depth of 10km, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said and has caused serious damage on buildings whilst also ‘splitting’ the port.

More than 20 firemen with 7 vehicles are in the affected areas, as well as 15 persons of EMAK special unit for disasters.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called Southern Aegean Region governor Giorgos Hatzimarkos and Kos Mayor Giorgos Kyritsis and expressed his deepest sorrow for the victims of the fatal earthquake and his wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured.

Tsipras was briefed on developments in the aftermath of the earthquake and emphasised a need to protect the health and safety of inhabitants and tourists on the island.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the leaders of the political parties had a phone contact with Kos mayor Giorgos Kyritsis expressing their support.

Fortunately for the island, the airport is operating normally, said Infrastructure and Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis, who rushed to the island earlier in the day along with Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios and Alternate Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas.

One of four injured patients airlifted from the island of Kos following Friday’s earthquake is still under observation in the Heraklion University General Hospital ICU while another had undergone a double amputation of his lower limbs, hospital authorities said on Friday.

In an update, the hospital said that a 21-year-old Swedish national remains in the ICU with serious head injuries and multiple fractures throughout his body. A 23-year-old Norwegian national brought in with his lower left leg amputated at the shin has also undergone an amputation of his lower right leg and is now in the hospital’s orthopedic clinic.

A Greek national, aged 37, with a fractured eye socket has been admitted to the hospital’s eye clinic and a 28-year-old Greek woman with fractures of the lower limbs is also in the orthopedic clinic, while she has undergone thoracic surgery.

All four patients, who were airlifted from Kos to Crete in a military C-130 transport plane on Friday morning, are being closely monitored and under constant observation, the head of the hospital Eleni Giakoumaki told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA). The Iraklio-area hospital doctors and nursing staff are also on standby since Friday morning to receive more patients, she said.