205 Turks evacuated from Greek island of Kos after strong quake
BODRUM – Anadolu Agency
The injured were taken to hospitals in Muğla’s Bodrum district by rescue teams.
A Turkish naval ship escorted the passenger vessel during its journey from the island of Kos to Bodrum.
Following the first round, the ferry named “Asım Kaptan” (Captain Asım) departed again to evacuate Turkish citizens who remained in Kos.
One Turkish citizen who was evacuated from Kos, Hale Özveren, spoke of her moments in panic, saying that she saw the ground cracking.
“We saw the sea overflow and the ground crack. After the quake I tried to calm my child down. On the other hand, we started to think about the possible tsunami wave,” she said.
Özveren also said that Greek media outlets urged locals who experienced the quake to climb higher than the ground.
One of the other evacuated Turkish citizens, Nilgün Ağrıbozluoğlu, said she could not explain what they experienced.
“We’ve had terrible things. Everything is shattered there. The pipes burst; the city does not have any water. People are lying in the street. Nobody could help anyone out. Everyone was on their own,” she said.
Turkish authorities announced earlier that the Turkish consulate in Piraeus launched the evacuation process for more than 200 Turkish nationals stranded in Kos.
Previously, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that a ferry was sent from Bodrum to evacuate Turkish citizens who were on vacation on the island.
The ministry had also confirmed one Turkish citizen was killed due to the earthquake.
Officials remarked that the Greek island had been affected by the quake more than Turkey and large-scale damage had occurred on the island.