Several killed in southern Spain quake

The earthquake struck Lorca at 6:47 pm local time (1647 British time), and the US Geological Survey said the epicentre was 1 km below the ground.

A milder quake of 4.5 magnitude had hit the town, which is dependent on farming, shortly beforehand.

Part of a badly damaged church collapsed hours after the quake, narrowly missing a television reporter filing a live report (see video below).

Smashed-up cars lined the streets as walls collapsed on top of them.

Shaken families and children gathered in a square in the town, seeking safety from fallen buildings as masonry and rubble blanketed the streets.

“The population is scared and are very afraid to return to their homes. The whole of the centre of Lorca has been seriously damaged,” said Rafael Gonzalez Tovar, delegate from the central government in Murcia Rafael.

“There are thousands of very disorientated people.”

One woman told national radio: “We were just sat here and everything began to move, pictures fell from the wall, the TV fell and (the quake) went on for ages. We looked out of the window and there were a lot of people running, an ambulance and the police.”

The last fatal earthquake to hit Spain was in 1997, when one person was killed, according to the USGS.

Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba will travel to the town on Thursday to examine the damage, the prime minister’s office said.

The government mobilised a military task force of 200 servicemen and women to help secure the area, where an estimated 10,000 people have been affected by the quake.

Lorca, which has a population of about 90,000 people, dates back to the Bronze Age and probably gained its name from the Romans. The old part of the town is made up of a network of narrow alleyways.