A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook Crete today – two weeks after another quake killed one person and damaged hundreds of buildings on the Greek island.
A tsunami alert was issued and witnesses reported a ‘heavy tremor’ felt at 12.24 a.m. local time (9.24 a.m. GMT) after the quake, 31 miles southeast of the port city of Sitia. After that the house was shaking.
A church collapsed and officials reported landslides, while seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos predicted smaller waves on the south coast and urged people to move away from the shores.
The Geodynamic Institute in Athens said the magnitude 4.1 and 4.5 quakes – considered aftershocks – occurred minutes later.
Officials said police and firefighters are now investigating damage to buildings in eastern Crete after the quake depth of 6.2 miles.
A church collapsed (pictured) and officials reported landslides, while seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos predicted smaller waves on the southern coast and urged people to move away from the shores
People took to the streets after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Greek island of Crete
The epicenter of the quake was about 31 miles southeast of the port city of Sitia and was felt at 12.24 p.m. local time (9.24 a.m. GMT). The earthquake was at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km).
The quake was felt on the Greek islands east of Crete, including Karpathos, Kasos and Rhodes.
“The quake was felt across the island, and it caused concern because we are still feeling the tremors of the last earthquake,” Crete’s deputy regional governor Yiannis Leondarakis told Greece’s state radio.
Witnesses reported feeling ‘heavy tremors’ and said their houses shook side to side.
A resident of the town of Analypsi, near Heraklion, reported to EMSC: ‘Heavy tremors. The whole house shook by at least 15 cm. It lasted for about 20 seconds.
Another person from the same city, which is 43 km from the epicenter of the quake, said: ‘Long duration, even people driving felt it.’
Leondarakis said of Tuesday’s earthquake: ‘Fortunately, there was no serious damage, despite the fact that it was a strong event and occurred at a shallow depth.’
The quake was felt on the Greek islands east of Crete, including Karpathos, Kasos and Rhodes.
It comes only two weeks after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake killed one person, injured 10, and damaged hundreds of buildings on the island.
Hundreds of people in villages south of the island’s largest city, Heraklion, have been left homeless since the September 27 earthquake.
According to the Athens Geodynamic Institute, the epicenter of the quake, which struck at 9:17 a.m. on September 27, was 14 miles northwest of Arvi — about 153 miles southeast of Athens and six miles deep.
A Greek Orthodox chapel damaged after a powerful earthquake in the village of Arkalochori in central Crete on September 27. One person was killed as the debris fell, while rescue workers are trying to retrieve more from the rubble.
On September 27, according to the Greek channel ERT, a man who was working at a church in the island’s central village of Arkalochori died when the dome, which was undergoing repairs, collapsed.
A man, identified as 65-year-old Iakvos Tsagarakis, died from falling debris as he was working to restore the dome of the Prophet Elias’ church in Arkalochori, which had collapsed during the earthquake.
His son was one of several others injured in the fall, but he managed to escape and call emergency services, although he suffered multiple broken bones, according to Protothema.
The earthquake caused citizens to rush into the streets to avoid being trapped, and schools were evacuated. Around 20 people have been injured with many people trapped under the rubble.
Several aftershocks also affected the area, with the EMSC giving an initial magnitude of 4.6 for the strongest.
‘This is an earthquake that we did not expect, at the moment there are 4.5 aftershocks’, said seismologist Ephthymis Lekkas, who described the surprise quake as a ‘thunderbolt’.
Greece lies on several fault lines, and is sporadically affected by earthquakes.
Last October, a magnitude 7.0 struck in the Aegean Sea between the Greek island of Samos and the city of Izmir in western Turkey.
The most damage was done in Turkey, where 114 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured.
In Greece, the deaths of two teenagers were reported on Samos.
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