ATHENS - ONE woman died on the Greek island of Rhodes on Tuesday as a result of a strong undersea earthquake measuring 6.3 points on the Richter scale, officials said.
The woman tripped and fell down the stairs while fleeing from her house in the island village of Archangelos, deputy mayor Christos Argyrou told state television Net.
The early morning quake at 6.26am (11.26am Singapore time) caused concern on the island and was felt in the outlying area as far as Crete but there were no reports of other injuries or damage.
The tremor had its epicentre in the sea south of Rhodes, 445 kilometres southeast of Athens, the Institute of Geodynamics at the National Observatory of Athens said.
The US Geological Survey said earlier the quake measured 6.4 at a depth of 68km and 147km southwest of Mugla, Turkey.
'The quake has the power to create a small tsunami but this possibility is reduced if its epicentre was at a great depth,' seismologist Efthymios Lekkas told state Net television.
Greece experiences more seismic activity than any other country in Europe, accounting for half of Europe's recorded quakes.
A 6.5 magnitude quake on June 8 killed two people and injured about 140 in the northern Peloponnese. -- AFP
