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ATHENS, Greece (AP) – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck Friday the island of Zakynthos, a tourist island in western Greece, and was felt up to the end. Athens, but the authorities said that there had been no immediate report damage.
The US geological survey indicated that the epicenter of the submarine earthquake was 33 km southwest of Mouzaki in the southern part of the island. It had a depth of 14 kilometers and struck just before 2 am local time (2300 GMT Thursday).
The Greek fire services reported that no damage had been reported so far, but electricity had been cut off in the island's capital, Zakynthos. Stone falls have been reported in another part of the island and part of a church wall has collapsed in the town of Pyrgos, in southern Peloponnese.
The earthquake was strongly felt throughout western Greece.
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Two other less violent shocks hit Zakynthos just before and shortly after that of magnitude 6.8. The village of Mouzaki is close to the famous tourist resort of Laganas.
Greece is one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the world, with thousands of earthquakes each year. But few people cause serious injury or damage. In 1999, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on the outskirts of Athens killed 143 people.
Zakynthos has had severe earthquakes in the past and therefore has a very strict building safety code.
