Eyewitnesses describe the terrifying moment killer earthquake struck Greek, Turkish resorts

At least two people have been killed and more than 200 injured on the Greek holiday island of Kos after a strong earthquake sent a building crashing down on tourists at a bar, striking panic that reached the shores of nearby Turkey.

Two male tourists from Turkey and Sweden were killed after the walls of a bar in Kos broke apart and crashed down on partygoers when the shallow, 6.5-magnitude quake struck at about 1:30 a.m.

Officials said at least five other people were seriously injured on the island as tourists and local residents scrambled desperately out of buildings, with some even leaping from balconies.

Naomi Ruddock, 22, described being woken up when the quake hit her hotel in Kos. “We were asleep and we just felt the room shaking”, she said. “The room moved. Literally everything was moving. And it kind of felt like you were on a boat and it was swaying really fast from side to side, you felt seasick.”

“The instant reaction was to get ourselves out of the (hotel) room”, said Christopher Hackland, a Scottish diving instructor. “There was banging. There was shaking.”

“It felt like being at a theme park with one of the illusions, an optical illusion where you feel like you’re upside down.”

Hackland was one of many tourists who were forced to spend the night outdoors on Kos, with many sleeping on sunbeds along beaches.

London student Georgie Jamieson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re all a bit shaken up. We had been having a lovely evening down in the hotel and got up to our room an hour before it struck.

“We were literally dozing off when the first tremor struck. From then on it was a bit of a surreal nightmarish experience.

“I was semi-conscious. At first I panicked and I was a bit fear-struck, but then slowly trying to process what was happening.

“Everything was shaking really vigorously. I’ve never felt anything like it before. Almost as if the ground was going to cave in.”

In nearby Turkey, the massive quake caused cracks in the walls of some buildings in the resort of Bodrum, flooding the lower floors of sea-front hotels and restaurants and sending moored boats crashing toward the shore.

Boat captain Metin Kestaneci, 40, told the Dogan news agency that he was asleep on his vessel when the quake hit.

“There was first a noise and then a roar. Before I could ask ‘what’s happening?’ my boat was dragged toward the shore”, Kestaneci said. “We found ourselves on the shore. I’ve never experienced such a thing.”

Turkey and Greece sit on significant fault lines and have regularly been hit by earthquakes in recent years.

Kos’s airport remained operational, but its port was out of action. Despite fears of delays as a result of the quake, passengers leaving the UK on the busiest travel weekend of the year have been reassured they shouldn’t face too much trouble.

A British foreign office spokesperson said they were in contact with Greek and Turkish authorities and advised Brits to follow their instructions.