A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 struck southwestern Greece on Sunday, causing damage, dozens of injuries and at least two deaths, emergency officials said.A women walks with a child near a destroyed house in Kato Ahagia, following Sunday's earthquake. (Petros Karadjias/Associated Press)

The quake, with an epicentre near the town of Andravida, struck at 3:25 p.m. local time, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said. It was felt as far away as southern Italy.

There are reports of several collapsed and severely damaged homes in villages as well as the port city Patras, about 190 kilometres west of Athens.

One man was killed by falling debris in the village of Kato Achaia. An elderly woman from a nearby village died in hospital of a heart attack after being injured.

Two families — seven people in total — who had been trapped in collapsed houses were rescued in the village of Fostaina, officials said.

About 90 people were injured, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said. By nightfall, six of the injured remained in hospital.

Crews were working to clear a landslide that blocked the Athens-Patras highway as the quake struck.

Sunday's tremor was Greece's first fatal earthquake since 1999, when a 5.9-magnitude quake near Athens killed 143 people and left thousands homeless.

With files from the Associated Press