The Greek capital remained in a state of emergency last night after it became apparent that Tuesday's earthquake has had a devastating effect on the city which will host the 2004 Olympic Games.
With the death toll at 62 - and climbing by the hour - officials said about 10,000 people had been made homeless by the powerful quake. Over 80 per cent of residences in impoverished working-class areas of Athens have been reduced to ruins by the quake which had a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale.
"Its effects are shocking . . . far worse than anyone had thought," the Greek Interior Minister, Mr Giorgos Florides, said. To stave off further disaster, the government was reported to be considering relocating the Olympic village, where some 15,000 competitors were expected to be housed, because the site stood on the slopes of the mountain where the quake had its epicentre, 18 km north of Athens.
It is still not known how many people are trapped beneath the debris of demolished buildings.
Standing knee-deep in rubble yesterday, a Turkish cardiologist, Dr Birol Say, surveyed the wreckage of the Greek factory where as many as 70 people are believed to have been buried. His team of rescuers had been the first to fly in from abroad and are trying desperately to find life amid the collapsed concrete slabs.
"We think three people are alive over there," he said as aftershocks continued to jolt Athens.
"And over there we haven't heard anything yet but we are still digging. Around 20 people were working in the accountancy office in that part of the building when the earthquake happened."
It was a terrible sight. The five-storey factory had come down so far it had been flattened. The only thing left standing was its lift shaft overlooking the valley below.
Greek rescuers had pulled six dead men and women from the site. But the Turkish team, only days after sifting through the rubble of Turkey's own devastating quake, had found the first signs of life. After nearly 24 hours beneath the debris the voices of two women and a man had been detected with a listening device.
"A man can survive under such ruins for up to 50 days," said Dr Say, "if the conditions are good. If there is a triangle of life and he is not wounded." For people like Mr Agapitos Agapitou, this was the best news he had heard since the quake. All night he had stood at the side of the factory, waiting for news of his daughter, Katerina, and grandchild, Sophia.
"Sophia had gone to the factory to keep her mother company. They were very close," sobbed Mr Agapitou. "Maybe they are the two women still alive. Maybe I will see them soon."
Mr Agapitou was not the only Greek yesterday to be living in hope - or fear. All around the immigrant and working-class areas of Athens, where shoddy construction work brought down buildings like houses of cards, people were praying that loved ones would emerge from fallen factories and multi-storey apartment blocks. All the way to Metamorphosi, the suburb where Mr Agapitou's daughter had worked, there was wreckage and people camping out in parks and public squares, too scared to return to their homes.
With seismologists not ruling out a second big quake in the next 48 hours, much of Athens appeared to have shut down, with panic-stricken people evacuating buildings, including hospitals.
Last night, as the government announced a package of relief measures for victims amounting to $600 each, officials said the capital would remain in a state of emergency for at least several days. Schools and other public buildings, including the Athens Stock Exchange, have been shut. Over 700 technical engineers were yesterday inspecting the buildings to see if they were fit to enter.
"Eighty per cent of houses and buildings in the north-western part of Athens have suffered structural damage," said Mr Florides.
As in the case of Turkey, officials pledged that punitive measures would be taken against "cowboy" contractors.
Jas Kaminski adds:
The Irish authorities are advising tourists travelling to Greece that there is "no specific danger" arising from the earthquake and to proceed with holiday arrangements as planned.
There are between 800 and 1,200 Irish holiday-makers in Greece at the moment, according to Mr Brendan Ward, chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents' Association, and there have been no reports of injuries or fatalities.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been in contact with the Irish Embassy officials in Athens who said they were fairly sure no Irish citizens had been affected by the earthquake.