Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511270026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT LENGTH: Medium
At least eight people were killed and dozens injured - including two students who suffered broken legs when crushed by hundreds of youths fleeing down the stairway of a crowded Cairo hostel.
The quake struck at 6:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. Tuesday EST) and was centered about 68 miles south of the Israeli resort of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba.
It shook seaside resorts in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and was felt as far away as Lebanon, Syria and the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to the north. Buildings, including a four-story hotel, collapsed and electricity was cut.
Hardest hit were towns along the Gulf of Aqaba - including Eilat, Israel, neighboring Aqaba in Jordan, and Nuweiba, Egypt, about 40 miles south. Vacationers ran from hotels in pajamas, bathrobes and, in a few cases, in only towels.
``There was a strong noise. Then the whole ground started moving. There was panic and people were screaming. Customers in the hotel left their rooms. It was very scary,'' said Mashaat al-Haddad, a desk clerk at Aqaba's seafront Holiday Inn.
In Nuweiba, the four-story Barracuda Hotel collapsed, killing three people, including the manager, police said. Rescue workers said an Egyptian woman was missing and feared trapped under the rubble.
A 67-year-old man died of a heart attack after carrying his invalid wife down two stories from a swaying hotel in Eilat.
An 18-year-old man was killed jumping in fear from a fourth-floor balcony in the southern Egyptian city of Assiut; a 5-year-old boy and a Pakistani man were killed in Saudi Arabia; and a 50-year-old man died of a heart attack in Aqaba just after the tremors.
At least 58 people were reported injured in Egypt, most in the Sinai Peninsula along the Aqaba gulf.
In Cairo, where a quake left 550 dead in 1992, bus driver Amin Rizk Allah, 36, said he did not realize a quake had hit until he heard people crying out Islamic prayers in fear.
``I thought I was dizzy, and then I saw people running out saying `God is great' and `There is no god but God.' Then I knew there was an earthquake,'' he said.
Estimates of the quake's magnitude ranged from 7.2 by the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., to 5.7 by Egypt's Helwan Observatory. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7 is considered major.
by CNB