ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Fearing to return home, thousands of people in central Greece spent the night outdoors late Wednesday night after a strong earthquake, felt all over the region, damaged homes and public buildings.
The magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook the central city of Larissa. One man was injured in the fall, but no serious injuries were reported.
Officials reported structural damage, especially to old houses and buildings that saw the walls collapse or break. One of them was a primary school, built in stone in 1938, in the village of Damasi, affected by the earthquake, where 63 students participated in classes.
“Teachers kept a cold, and the students stayed in the emergency exercise and everyone did well,” principal Grigoris Letsios said during a video call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “The building will be condemned now … We will need a new school.”
The army set up tents and table counters on a nearby football field, while local officials asked people to stay outside their homes until they could be inspected. A series of strong aftershocks of up to 5.2 magnitude kept many residents on edge.
“Did you see how the trees move when the wind blows? That’s how the houses moved, “said Vangelis Mouseris, a resident of Damascus.
“I stood still like a statue. I was wondering whose house would fall? The neighbor’s house? My house? I’ve never felt this way before. ”
According to the Athens Geodynamic Institute, the quake struck at 12:16 pm (1015 GMT) and was felt in Albania and northern Macedonia, as well as in northern Kosovo and Montenegro.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, to convey solidarity and provide assistance, if necessary, according to officials from the two neighboring countries – which are long-term regional rivals.
Albania’s foreign minister, Olta Xhacka, also called on Dendias to express his support.
In Athens, seismologist Vassilis Karastathis told reporters that the quake occurred in a fault line in the area that did not historically produce earthquakes with a magnitude much higher than on Wednesday. He said the post-earthquake activity seems normal so far, but experts are monitoring the situation.
“The earthquake had an estimated depth of only 8 kilometers (5 miles) and that was one of the reasons it was felt so strongly in the region,” said Karastathis, who is deputy director of the Institute of Geodynamics in Athens.
The Greek army chief was in the quake-hit area to help the emergency services, and firefighting helicopters were used before nightfall to assess damage to buildings around the central Greek cities of Tyrnavos, Elasona and elsewhere in the world. near the epicenter.
The fire department said on Wednesday it received several calls to deal with medical emergencies, helping patients with various chronic conditions to access the hospital, already affected by the pandemic.
Greece is in an extremely seismically active region. The vast majority of earthquakes do not cause damage or injury, many of which occur under the sea.
In October last year, an earthquake that struck the island of Samos in eastern Greece and the nearby Turkish coast killed two high school students in Samos and at least 75 people in Turkey. In 1999, an earthquake near Athens killed 143 people.
___ Elena Becatoros and Theodora Tongas contributed to Athens, Llazar Semini to Tirana, Albania and Suzan Fraser to Ankara, Turkey. ___
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