Couple's fear as earthquake hits island

Simon Swannick, 47 and his 40-year-old partner Jenny Flores-Ramirez from Copthorne were on the second day of their holiday to the Greek holiday isle of Kos when a terrifying earthquake hit. The 6.7 magnitude quake was out to sea, but destroyed dozens of buildings in Turkey and on the Greek island and making those on land fear it would trigger a tsunami.

Two people on Kos were killed and more than 500 injured in both countries.

The earthquake sent a building crashing down on tourists at a bar in the Old Town of the main port, killing a 27-year-old man from Sweden and a 39-year-old man from Turkey.

Greek health officials said 13 people were flown to hospitals in Athens and on the islands of Rhodes and Crete.

It triggered a small tsunami that brought two-foot tidal waves that caused flooding in Bodrum in Turkey and parts of Kos, which took the brunt of the impact with significant damage to buildings.

Simon and Jenny were shaken from their beds at around 1.30am and looked in horror as the buildings around them crumbled and fell.

Fleeing their room, they made their way outside where they cowered in the hotel's car park amid fears of further aftershocks.

Simon, who works for Royal Mail, said: "We had flown out on July 19 and were staying in the resort of Lambi, which isn't that far from Kos town.

"We had just gone to bed after being out for the evening when the room started to violently shake. The mirror fell off the wall and the furniture was being thrown around. I knew straight away what is was and Jenny is from El Salvador and she knew it was an earthquake as soon as it hit. We went as fast as we could to get out of the hotel. The building was swaying from side to side. The swimming pool had half emptied and the water had gone everywhere and the outside bar had totally collapsed. If the quake had hit a few minutes earlier there would have been people there.

"The hotel owner gave everyone blankets and bottled water and looked after us as best he could. He was really good. Everyone was talking about what had happened and were worrying that there was going to be more aftershocks or even a tsunami. Nobody knew what to do really and everybody was scared. We were told to sleep in the car park as it was too unsafe to go back in to the hotel.

"The following day we were told we could sleep on the sunbeds outside but we were still not allowed in the hotel. People were having to use the bushes for toilets. The people that live there were sleeping in their gardens.

"That day we went for a walk around the town and saw some of the damage for ourselves. There were walls that had come down or that had huge cracks in them. Everywhere you looked there was rubble. The port had been very badly damaged so I don't know how they are going to manage getting goods in and out. It is amazing that only two people were killed. Looking at the devastation around us, I would have expected the figure to be much higher.

"Some tourists wanted to leave as soon as they could but the airport was closed. There were no planes coming in and only a few leaving. I wanted to get a message back to my family to let them know we were ok and where we were. We decided to stay on and got back home on Wednesday and our families were very relieved to know that we were back. It was very nice to touch down in Manchester and know we were safe.

"Kos is a lovely place, and the people are very kind but this sort of thing does put you off returning."