By Elif Ural
IZMIR, Turkey, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake injured more than 100 people on Tuesday when it struck a popular tourist resort in southwestern Turkey, just seven weeks after a massive tremor killed at least 15,800.
The latest earthquake, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, struck close to the seaside town of Marmaris shortly before four a.m. (0100 GMT), state-run Anatolian news agency said.
It said one man was in critical condition with a broken back and 103 had been treated in hospital, mostly for cuts and bruises after leaping from windows and balconies in panic.
The memory of horrific scenes following the devastating August 17 quake are still fresh in people's minds and fear of another quake has gripped the country ever since, sending people out on to the streets with every aftershock, which have numbered hundreds.
Official figures updated on Tuesday put the death toll from the August quake, measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, at 15,826, with 43,953 injured. More than 112,000 tents have been erected in the affected area where some 213,000 homes were damaged or demolished.
Early last month a smaller quake hit northwest Turkey, killing at least seven. One woman leaped to her death from her Istanbul home two weeks ago after a minor tremor.
Marmaris town governor Isa Kucuk said the initial panic from Tuesday's quake had receded.
"But our citizens and tourists are still on the streets," Anatolian quoted him as saying. "We are in touch with the surrounding areas and the villages and the information we are getting from them is that there are no collapsed buildings and no injured."
Kucuk said cracks had appeared in a number of buildings in the town, some 850 km (530 miles) south of Turkey's biggest city Istanbul.
The population of Marmaris town is normally around 50,000 but it is boosted each summer by thousands of mainly British tourists.
"We have checked all the hospitals and there are no British people injured, except one woman who cracked her pelvis jumping from a balcony," said an official at the British consulate in Marmaris.
Former Turkish president and 1980 military coup leader, Kenan Evren, who lives in retirement near Marmaris, said he had spent the night in his car after being woken by the tremor.
"This is the third earthquake I
have lived through, but this one was the most powerful," the agency
quoted him as saying.
Schools in the town were closed for the day while authorities assessed
whether they were safe.
A tremor was also felt shortly after 0100 GMT on the nearby Greek islands of Rhodes and Kos, but there were no reports of injuries or damage. Greek authorities said the quake measured 4.6 on the Richter scale and was centred in the sea, north of Rhodes close to Marmaris.
Turkey is criss-crossed by seismic fault lines and records frequent moderate tremors. The government was widely criticised after the August quake for having failed to take precautions against the possibility of a major disaster.