Devastating earthquake in Croatia: there are deaths, injuries and damage | the Chronicle

The powerfull Magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked the city of Petrinja, Croatia, 50 kilometers from the capital of the European country, Zagreb. According to local authoritiesThere are wounded and dead, including a girl.

“Petrinja is in ruins. There are dead, injured and missing. There is no house that has not been damaged. Ambulances cannot reach all places. It is chaos.”, assured the mayor Darinko Dumbovic at Radio Croatia station.

The earthquake, which occurred at a depth of 10 km around 11:30 a.m. GMT (8:30 a.m. in Argentina) and was of a magnitude of 6.2 according to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center.

The Ministry of the Interior asked via its official account to Twitter What “if you can, get outdoors and move away from buildings that are in danger of collapsing. “

In addition, local telephone lines were affected by the earthquake and are not functioning properly.

For his part, the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, stressed that he was on his way to Petrinja, which suffered significant damage from “devastating earthquake “. “We are mobilizing all available services to help people and clean up destroyed parts. The most important thing now is to save human lives “, he stated.

Rescuers and the army were deployed to search for possible residents trapped in the rubble of damaged buildings.

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, Indian through Twitter which “is following closely the situation in Zagreb after the devastating earthquake”. “Our hearts are with the injured and the workers on the front lines. In these difficult times, the European Union (EU) offers its full support and assistance to the Croatian people and the Prime Minister.”, wrote.

On this occasion, the Croatian seismological service indicated that the earthquake was felt throughout the country and announced that the material damage will be higher than that recorded on Monday, when an earthquake of lesser impact was recorded.

Witnesses quoted by “Vecernji List” assured that the earthquake had aftershock. in cities like Osijek, Rijeka, Split and Zadar.