Strong quake shakes Turkey's Aegean coast

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 shook a city in western Turkey today, sending residents into the streets in panic. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The earthquake was centred in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Izmir, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said.

Quakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies atop the active North Anatolian fault.

In 1999, two devastating earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in north-western Turkey.