Powerful quake rattles Greece

ATHENS - A strong earthquake shook Greece and most of the eastern Mediterranean early today NZT but caused only minor damages and no casualties.

The quake off the southeastern tip of Greece's Peloponnese peninsula measured 6.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, with its epicentre at a depth of 70 km near the island of Kithira, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said.

"We were extremely lucky this was an underwater quake," institute chief Giorgos Stavrakakis told reporters. "If it had happened on land it would be a mess."

Police said there were no reports of casualties after the tremor, which drove people out of their homes in cities across most of the country.

Athenians were calm and traffic normal despite memories of a September 1999 quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale that hit the capital, killing at least 143 people and leaving 60,000 people homeless.

The earthquake struck at 1134 GMT (12.34am NZT Monday) and lasted for about seven seconds and was felt as far away as southern Italy, Cyprus, Egypt and Jordan, officials said.

Despite its strength only about 50 empty houses on Kithira were damaged, officials said. Some old houses further south, on Crete, were also damaged.

"Other than that there are no injuries to people which is very good news," Kithira fire chief Lazaros Konstantinou told reporters.

Greece sits on several of Europe's most active seismic faults. Seismology institutes registered dozens of minor aftershocks up to about 5.0 on the Richter scale.

"This is normal and good because it allows this phenomenon to get rid of the pressure it has built up," Stavrakakis said.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre put the quake at 6.5 and the US Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center said it had a magnitude of 6.7.

Greek media said two people on the island of Crete had been injured in the rush to leave their homes during the earthquake.

Italian media reported that the earthquake was felt across much of southern Italy, from the Adriatic port city of Bari to the Mediterranean port city of Naples.

- REUTERS