Ten killed in Spanish earthquakes

Ten people have been killed and numerous others injured after two earthquakes struck in the southeast of Spain last night.

The first quake, with a magnitude of 4.4 struck just before 7pm yesterday evening and a second quake, with a magnitude of 5.2, struck two hours later close to the town of Lorca in the Murcia region of the country.

A hospital in the town, located approximately 150 kilometres south of the popular resort, Alicante, was evacuated and a field hospital was set up to treat dozens of people who had been injured in the scene.

The official death toll for the earthquakes according to the Spanish Prime Minister’s office is ten people, including a child who was killed during the more forceful second quake.

A number of buildings in the town of Lorca, which has a population of approximately 90,000 people, were structurally damaged, while the footage below shows a number of cars that were crushed by falling rubble.

The quakes occurred in a seismically active area near a large fault beneath the Mediterranean Sea where the European and African continents brush past each other, said Julie Dutton, seismologist for the US Geological Survey.

The USGS said it has recorded hundreds of small quakes in the area since 1990.