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| - The Greek island of Samos on Saturday mourned a teen couple killed by a powerful quake as crews inspected the damage to hundreds of homes and businesses. The 17-year-old boy and his 15-year-old girlfriend were crushed by falling masonry in the island town of Vathi on their way back from school when the undersea earthquake struck Friday. "All of Greece is mourning," said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who flew to Samos to inspect the recovery effort. "Churches, ports and homes will be rebuilt with the help of God, but (their) souls will not return," lamented Father Emmanouil in the coastal town of Pythagorio, which also saw extensive damage. The 19th century church under his jurisdiction, the Transfiguration of Christ the Saviour, is now unsuitable for services. "Huge pieces of masonry have collapsed," he told AFP. The drawn-out tremor also dislodged stones at a 19th century fortified tower and brought down the entrance to the local cemetery. Georgios Stantzos, the mayor of the eastern half of the island, said the quake had caused "inestimable" damage. "We have the pandemic, and now we have the quake... it will be very hard for the island's economy to recover," he said. "We have been hard at work since morning to register all the damage to businesses and homes," civil protection deputy minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters as aftershocks continued to unnerve the island's 45,000 inhabitants. Hardalias added that around 300 homes and over 70 businesses had been damaged, and described the situation as "very problematic". The US Geological Survey said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0. Greece's national observatory measured it at 6.7. "Given the size of the earthquake, things could have been much worse," Premier Mitsotakis said, adding that the state would provide relief funds. Samos is a centre of production for ouzo, Greece's popular anise-flavoured aperitif. A day after the quake, spirits from smashed bottles were still seeping into the street. "Bottles were falling all over the place," said ouzo producer Alexandros Giokarinis, who was inside his shop when the temblor struck and took refuge under a desk. Michalis Kamourianos, an elderly local fisherman, pointed to cracks in the town's cement dock caused by the quake. "I've never seen anything like it." A mini-tsunami that hit the island after the earthquake cracked open cars parked nearby and carried away his brand new nets that cost 4,000 euros, he added. "The sea covered the coast," said cafe waiter Nikos Valsamis, who fled to higher ground with his pet dogs. Samos lies near a frequently active underwater quake fault line. "The northeastern Aegean is a seismogenous area where quakes are common," said Giannis Kalogeras, a seismologist at the national observatory in Athens. The earthquake caused even greater devastation in the Turkish city of Izmir across the Aegean Sea, killing at least 25 people. str/jph/bmm
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