HOLIDAYMAKERS from Barry have described how they escaped unscathed from the biggest earthquake Kos has experienced for years.

Barry couple Joseph Mees and Christian Bullen were staying in the Greek island’s Oceanis Beach and Spa resort when a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck at 1.30am on Friday, July 21.

Two people died and 200 people were injured as a result.

Mr Mees had celebrated his 24th birthday three days before the earthquake struck.

Along with Mr Mees, Mr Bullen, principal director of Barry-based stage school, Superstars in the Making, experienced the earthquake’s aftershocks of 4.4 and 4.6 magnitude before returning to the UK on Sunday, July 23.

Mr Mees said: “We were the last people in the bar.

“We were all chatting and laughing around a table when suddenly there was a deafening roar-like sound and the earth and the hotel building started violently shaking.

“All of our glasses from the table smashed on hitting the ground. I was thrown from my chair to the ground.

“One of our friends shouted ‘earthquake’.

“It stopped temporarily. People started to come out from their rooms to see what was going on.

“Everyone was disoriented after waking up from sleep. A few seconds later, the noise came back and the earth started shaking violently again.

“The power went out so it was pitch black. I was terrified. I thought I was going to die.”

Mr Bullen, 27, added: “It felt as though the floor was going to fall through. There was a huge rumble and all the lights went out and all the glasses smashed around us.

“Then the whole hotel ran for their lives out of the building. The whole place was such a mess, the shop was all smashed up, the buildings with huge cracks on them.”

He described how they then had to spend the night outside sleeping on sunbed cushions with towels for blankets.

He said: “There were many tremors and aftershocks throughout the night. We could not sleep.

“A woman in our hotel also broke her arm in the earthquake as she fell over.

Mr Bullen said: “We decided to camp out a second night on the sunbeds by taking all of our bedding out of the room. It was almost like a refugee camp.

“The staff who had been up all night incredibly put on a breakfast. It was emotional to see such dedication to the guests after such a disaster. People really pull together in an emergency.”