Crushing earthquake on island of Crete leaves one dead, nine injured

A strong shake that lasted 15 seconds and reached 5.8 degrees, left a balance worker died and at least nine injured. The epicenter of the earthquake was recorded at 346 kilometers south of Athens, at a depth of 10 km, according to the Athens Observatory. It particularly affected the city of Arkalohori, where several old houses collapsed.

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The fire department clarified that the man was trapped under the ruins of the roof of a small village church Arkalojori, where he was doing restoration work when the earthquake knocked down the temple’s dome. When he was able to come out of the collapse, he was unconscious.

Also nine people were slightly injuredSpiros Georgiou of the civil protection press service reported to AFP.

Buildings and electricity poles collapsed, roads were blocked and it caused panic on Greece’s largest island. Images broadcast by public television ERT show damage such as the collapse of old houses in Arkaloxori and other towns near Heraklion.

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“It’s an unexpected earthquake, right now there are aftershocks of 4.5”said seismologist Efthymis Lekkas, chairman of the earthquake protection body, as quoted by the Greek news agency ANA.

The Minister of Civil Protection Christos Stylianides, accompanied by Lekkas and a team of services against natural disasters (Emak) will travel to Crete in the next few hours, according to ERT.

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The earthquake, de magnitude 5.8 according to the Geodynamic Observatory of Athens and 6 according to the USGS United States Geological Survey, it occurred at 06:17 GMT 23 km from Heraklion, the capital of Crete.

Greece is located on geological faults and earthquakes are common. On March 3, an earthquake struck in the center of the country, in Elassona, leaving one dead and ten injured.

On October 30, 2020, a magnitude 7 earthquake rocked the Aegean Sea between the Greek island of Samos and the Turkish city of Smyrna, with a death toll of two in Greece and 114 in Turkey. This earthquake adds to the series of natural disasters that hit the world, such as the eruption of the volcano La Palma, in the Canary Islands.

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