Strong earthquake hits Greece; 2 dead

By Elena Becatoros

Originally published 03:17 p.m., June 8, 2008, updated 03:45 p.m., June 8, 2008

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 struck southwestern Greece on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring more than 100 and leveling dozens of homes, authorities said.

It was Greece's first fatal earthquake since 1999, when a 5.9 magnitude quake near Athens killed 143 people and left thousands homeless.

Sunday's quake struck at 3:25 p.m. near the port city of Patras, about 120 miles west of Athens in the northwestern Peloponnese, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said. It was felt as far away as southern Italy.

Two people were killed and 120 were injured, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said. By nightfall, six of the injured remained hospitalized.

One man was killed by a falling pergola outside his home in Kato Ahaia, a village near the epicenter, while a woman who had only been slightly injured in the quake died later in the hospital of a heart attack, Pavlopoulos said.

"My thoughts in these hours are with our fellow citizens who are suffering," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said in a statement from Vienna, Austria, where he was on a three-day visit. "I want to stress and underline that the state will be at (their) side."

Karamanlis was to cut his visit to Austria short and return to Greece on Monday.

Frequent aftershocks rattled already frightened residents, and seismologists urged caution, particularly around buildings damaged in the initial quake.

"We are watching the seismic activity with great attention. We are not yet certain that the danger is completely over," said Athens Geodynamic Institute director Gerasimos Papadopoulos.

Although it was unlikely there would be a stronger quake, he said, "there is still concern."

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