Strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea: 14 people died, a small tsunami in the district south of Izmir

A powerful earthquake with an epicenter in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos has killed at least 14 people this morning and injured more than 400 in collapsed buildings and flooding, officials said.

The small tsunami hit the Seferhisar district south of Izmir, the western Turkish city that was hardest hit, said Haluk Ozener, director of the Istanbul-based Kandili Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.

At least 12 people died in Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city, including one person who drowned, and 419 were injured, the Turkish Interior Ministry's Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) said.

In Samos, where a tsunami warning was issued, two teenagers were killed when the wall of a collapsed building fell on them.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted his condolences, saying: "Words are too poor to describe the feeling of losing children."

Another eight people sought help at a local hospital in Samos due to minor injuries.

Izmir Governor Javuz Selim Kosger said at least 70 people were rescued from the rubble.

He said that ten buildings collapsed and others were damaged.

Search and rescue efforts continued in at least 12 buildings, AFAD said.

The Turkish Minister of Health Fahretin Koca announced on Twitter that 38 ambulances, two helicopters and 35 medical rescue teams were engaged in the rescue operation in Izmir.

The Presidency of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency announced that the epicenter of the earthquake was in the Aegean Sea at a depth of 16,5 kilometers.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6,9, with an epicenter 13 kilometers northeast of the Greek island of Samos.

The American Geophysical Institute and Turkish media reported that the earthquake recorded in the west of Turkey had a magnitude of seven on the Richter scale and caused the collapse of several buildings.

Environment and Urban Planning Minister Murat Kurum said that people were trapped under the rubble and that all available rescue teams were currently on the ground.

Videos published on Twitter showed that immediately after the earthquake, floods engulfed the Seferhisar district of Izmir.

Turkish officials and the media urged people not to take to the streets.

The earthquake was felt across the eastern Greek islands as far as the capital Athens and Bulgaria.

Turkish media reported that the earthquake was felt in the Aegean region and in Marmara, where Istanbul is located.