Strong Quake Shakes Mideast

Tourists clad only in pajamas and bathrobes fled seaside hotels and people shouting Muslim prayers ran into the streets of Cairo after a powerful earthquake rocked a wide arc of the Middle East on Wednesday.

At least eight people were killed and dozens injured - including two students who suffered broken legs when crushed by hundreds of youths fleeing down the stairway of a crowded Cairo hostel.

The quake struck at 6:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. Tuesday EST) and was centered about 68 miles south of the Israeli resort of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba.

It shook seaside resorts in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and was felt as far away as Lebanon, Syria and the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to the north.

Buildings, including a four-story hotel, collapsed and electricity was cut.

Hardest hit were towns along the Gulf of Aqaba - including Eilat, Israel, neighboring Aqaba in Jordan, and Nuweiba, Egypt, about 40 miles south.

“There was a strong noise. Then the whole ground started moving. There was panic and people were screaming. Customers in the hotel left their rooms. It was very scary,” said Mashaat al-Haddad, a desk clerk at Aqaba’s seafront Holiday Inn.

In Nuweiba, the four-story Barracuda Hotel collapsed, killing three people, including the manager.

A 67-year-old man died of a heart attack after carrying his invalid wife down two stories from a swaying hotel in Eilat.

An 18-year-old man was killed jumping in fear from a fourth-floor balcony in the southern Egyptian city of Assiut; a 5-year-old boy and a Pakistani man were killed in Saudi Arabia; and a 50-year-old man died of a heart attack in Aqaba just after the tremors.

At least 58 people were reported injured in Egypt, most in the Sinai Peninsula along the Aqaba gulf.