Strong quake hits Greece

DAMASI, Greece: A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit central Greece on Wednesday, damaging several buildings and prompting crowds to rush into the streets, though no injuries or deaths were immediately reported. Several aftershocks were reported after the main quake hit midday near the central city of Larissa, sparking panic in the area rarely hit by serious earthquakes. "Everything happened very fast, people ran out of buildings, there are still aftershocks," Chrissoula Katsiouli, a staffer at the mayor’s office in the local town of Elassona, near Larissa, told AFP. "We are still dazed... it was very frightening," local resident Vassilis Boussias told Skai TV. The civil protection authority said a disabled man had been rescued from his home in the village of Mesochori, after the side of the house completely collapsed. The clock tower of a church in Damasi also caved in and a school was damaged. —AFP