Moderate quake shakes Turkey, 15 hurt in panic

ISTANBUL - A moderate earthquake shook western Turkey today, causing slight damage to several buildings and resulting in 15 casualties from the ensuing panic, the local governor said.

The Kandilli earthquake observation centre said the tremor, at 12.40am (10.40am NZT), measured 5.9 on the Richter scale. Its epicentre was in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Seferihisar in Izmir province.

Izmir Governor Oguz Kagan Goksal told the CNN Turk television channel 15 people had been taken to hospital as a result of heart attacks or jumping from buildings during the quake.

The roofs of five buildings, three of them empty, had been damaged in the tremor, he said.

Residents gathered in parks and open areas after the quake, and the local council made public announcements telling them not to go back into their houses, CNN Turk said.

Turkey is criss-crossed by seismic faultlines and experiences frequent tremors. Some 18,000 people were killed in a powerful earthquake which shook northwest Turkey in 1999.

Authorities decided to close schools in the Izmir region on Friday as a result of the quake, the channel said.

- REUTERS