03:48

The Greek armed forces have been put on alert with a 15-strong team from the country’s specialist search and rescue units, flying into Kos in the early hours. An 11-strong government delegation also arrived on the island a little after 4am. It includes the citizens protection minister, Nikos Toskas, and the transport minister, Christos Spirtzis.

The search and rescue units are expected to wade through debris – along with officials from the local fire services – lest there are other victims throughout the day.

“Slowly, slowly life is returning to normality,” the government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told a local radio station, adding that, in contrast to a similar 6.2 earthquake that hit the island of Lesbos last month, the damage on Kos was limited.

Professor Ethymios Lekkas, who is Greece’s top geology professor and heads the anti-seismic protection organisation, says Kos should expect to be rattled by aftershocks for the foreseeable future.

“It was a big earthquake … aftershocks are happening and will happen,” he told the news portal newsit.gr, describing the tremors as “totally natural” and necessary.

For an earthquake of such magnitude, the damage had been very limited, he said:

With the exception of our two fellow human beings who died, the effects have been very small. We have had a very big earthquake … and only the port and two very big buildings have really been affected by it, which is very important and shows the level of construction.

Newly built hotel resorts had survived intact - testimony to their anti-seismic qualifications, he said.

Yiannis Glynou, who leads the technical chamber in the Dodecanese islands and is in Kos surveying the impact on buildings, told the country’s news agency: