Spaniards flee earthquake-hit town

Thousands of Spaniards have fled the town of Lorca after two earthquakes killed nine people and caused extensive damage.

Lorca has a population of about 90,000 but was transformed into a ghost town, with a steady stream of cars carrying residents fearful of aftershocks to nearby cities and towns to stay with relatives.

Stores, restaurants, and schools were closed as the sirens of police vehicles and ambulances filled the air and helicopters hovered overhead.

Only a few people walked streets today after tens of thousands slept outside in makeshift camps, and many of those who remained were poor Latin American immigrants who work the fields and had nowhere else to go.

Though Spain's government promised to set up a shelter to house 3,500 people, Luis Vazquez was camping in a supermarket car park with his wife, 12-year-old daughter and four other families.

The unemployed farm worker said his apartment was badly damaged, and that he would soon "have to ask for help if it continues like this. I can't care for my family without money, and now without a house".

Thirty people remained in hospital a day after the quakes, which prompted an estimated 30,000 residents to sleep in cars, shelters fashioned from cardboard boxes and garden chairs at makeshift camps in parks in the city about 30 kilometres (19 miles) inland from Mediterranean beach destinations where little to no damage was reported.

Only a few buildings were destroyed, but the quakes with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2 reported by Spain's geological institute sent brick building facades and parts of terraces plunging into the streets and caused damage to hundreds of apartment buildings.

While some people could not stay at home, many others did not want to stay inside for fear of aftershocks.

"The whole facade and the stairs of the apartment where I live are totally broken," said resident Tomas Hinojo. "The hardest things happened right where I live. Three of the victims killed are my neighbours."

Spanish experts said the second quake caused the most damage, and its power was more destructive than many quakes of similar magnitude because its epicentre was on the outskirts of Lorca and because it happened at the very shallow depth of about 1 km (0.6 miles) below ground.

The dead included one child, three of those in hospital were in serious condition, and an additional 260 were treated for light injuries and shock immediately after the quakes, the regional government's health department said.

Lorca was filled with cars crushed by rubble and buildings scarred with cracks as government teams of architects and surveyors fanned out throughout the city, inspecting buildings and painting them with colour codes. Red was for dangerous and uninhabitable buildings, yellow to warn residents to take caution when entering and green for safe structures.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero halted campaigning for upcoming regional and municipal elections to oversee an emergency committee to co-ordinate rescue and aid operations.

Eight hundred police and soldiers were deployed to the city to assist with the cleanup.

The quakes were the nation's most deadly since 1956, when 12 people died and about 70 were injured in the southern Granada region.