Greek rescue workers were racing against the clock last night trying to extract people trapped under buildings after one of the most severe earthquakes ever to strike the Greek capital, Athens, killing at least 32 people.
Officials said they believed as many as 150 men, women and children were trapped in the rubble of homes and factories in working class districts to the north of Athens, Europe's most densely populated metropolis. Fifty people were brought to hospital.
Greek television showed grim footage of workers pulling corpses from a detergent factory and several multi-storey buildings. Some of the dead are believed to be children, some of them babies.
About 50 buildings were reported destroyed in the earthquake which struck at around 3 p.m. local time.
At a collapsed factory in Tatoi, north-west of the city, rescue workers were searching last night for up to 70 people feared trapped in the rubble.
The quake's epicentre was located about 20 km north of Athens in the Menidi region, where most of the casualties occurred, officials said. Two toddlers were pulled from the ruins of a nursery school at Menidi, said one of the rescue workers, an army sergeant. The children were bleeding but did not appear to be seriously hurt, he added.
Sixteen soldiers were working to clear the rubble. One resident said a family of four, including a 17-year-old woman and her baby, were trapped. A woman crying for help could be heard.
According to local people in Menidi, at least five buildings collapsed, including one housing immigrant workers.
In Athens, thousands of people poured onto the streets when the quake struck. Many had been taking their traditional afternoon nap and some ran from buildings barefoot and dressed in pyjamas.
The tremors measured 5.9 and 6.1 on the Richter scale and lasted about 10 seconds. There were 16 aftershocks. Last month's devastating earthquake in Turkey measured 7.4 and killed more than 15,000 people.
While parts of both Greece and Turkey are renowned for earthquakes, the Greek quake yesterday appeared to be unrelated to movement in the northern Anatolian fault which caused the disaster in Turkey.
In restaurants and shops throughout Athens, local people and tourists screamed when the quake struck and for some moments there was total confusion as nobody seemed to know how best to react. But when the tremors subsided, customers and staff quickly left buildings.
Long queues formed at telephone kiosks as people attempted to contact relatives to assure them of their safety. However, telephone services were disrupted and people complained they could not make calls to locations outside the city.
There appeared to be relatively little structural damage to buildings in the city centre but everywhere streets were strewn with broken glass and pieces of concrete.
The Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, called an emergency cabinet meeting to assess the situation, public television reported.
Underlining the spirit of reconciliation between Greece and Turkey following the Turkish quake, President Demirel of Turkey and the Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, both sent messages of condolence to Athens.
"Because of the earthquake catastrophe experienced by ourselves a short while ago, we can feel and share your pain for the losses you have suffered," said Mr Demirel, adding that Turkey wished to offer whatever assistance it could.
Turkish television stations, which gave widespread coverage to the outpouring of Greek rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of the Turkish quake, quickly switched to live coverage from Athens by Greek television.