The epicentre sucked the water 300 metres from the shore before a huge tidal wave crashed in, submerging entire communities. The Observer has seen the first video images of the lost villages of Marmara. The pictures reveal shops and cafes, which were packed with late-night revellers who had gone out to escape the stifling heat, now full of bloated corpses. Coffee cups, tea glasses, ashtrays and signs advertising 'Tost' float among the bodies. An illegal casino in the basement of one tower block has been crushed, leaving arms and legs of gamblers protruding from the wreckage.
Coins litter the seabed.
No one knows exactly how many drowned. Divers say there may be as many as 4,000 bodies beneath the waves. More than 500 have been recovered already and taken to the local mosque. All along the rubble that has become the new promenade, relatives of the dead wait to recover their bodies. Some have hired divers to search for artefacts that may provide a clue to where their relatives lie.