ATHENS: At least 10 people were hurt on Monday when a strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios and the Aegean coast of western Turkey, Greece’s ERT state TV reported.

The injuries, mostly light, were recorded mainly in the village of Vrisa on the island of Lesbos, where a number of old homes collapsed.

Video footage shot by a Vrisa resident on a cellphone showed masonry from several single and two-level homes clogging the streets.

A 57-year-old woman was pulled out of the remains of her home hours after the quake struck. Her husband is also among the injured.

“It’s a difficult situation, we are facing a disaster,” Christiana Kalogirou, governor of the north Aegean region, told ERT, adding: “Some 10 people are injured.” “The army is bringing in tents so people can spend the night,” she said, adding that the south of Lesbos took the brunt of the quake.

The tremor, felt as far as Athens and Izmir, in Turkey, damaged at least three churches and shops in south Lesbos, local owners said, while rock slides blocked some roads.

“The street is full of plaster. I hope this peters out because people are very distressed,” said Yiorgos Patarelis, a shop owner in the nearby port of Plomari.

Plomari Mayor Manolis Armenakas told ERT: “We have damage to several buildings, old and new.” Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis said two people had been hospitalised.

In Vrisa, a traditional village inhabited mainly by elderly people, “dozens of homes have collapsed and village roads are blocked,” regional fire service supervisor Marios Apostolides told ERT.

Engineers were sent in from Athens to assess the damage and vet damaged homes.

“If this quake had happened on land the consequences would have been far greater,” said seismologist Costas Papazachos.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in Turkey. Lesser damage was reported on Chios.

The area struck on Lesbos lies a certain distance from the island’s refugee camps to the east and north. There were no reports of injuries among the refugees.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake was in the Aegean sea 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) south of Plomari, and there were several aftershocks.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake had a depth of just 10 kilometres.

Reporters in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, said the earthquake was felt in the centre and caused alarm among residents.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2017