ATHENS, Greece (AP) – For fear of returning home, thousands of people in central Greece spent the night outdoors late Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that felt across the region, damaged homes and public buildings.
The magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred near the central city of Larissa. One man was injured in the fall of debris, but no serious injuries were reported.
Officials reported structural damage, mainly to houses and old buildings that saw the walls collapse or crack. One of them was an elementary school, built of stone in 1938, in the village of Damasi, impacted by the earthquake, where 63 students attended classes.
“Teachers stayed calm and students clung to the emergency drill and everyone did well,” director Grigoris Letsios said while making a video call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “The building will be doomed now … We will need a new school.”
The army set up tents and food counters at a nearby football field, as local officials urged people to stay away from home until they could be inspected. A series of powerful aftershocks of up to 5.2 magnitude kept many residents on edge.
“Have you seen how the trees move when the wind blows? That’s how the houses were moved, “said Vangelis Mouseris, a resident of Damasi.
“I stood still like a statue. I was wondering who the house would fall to? The neighbor’s house? My house? I’ve never heard of such a thing before. “
According to the Athens Geodynamic Institute, the quake occurred at 12:16 pm (1015 GMT), and was also felt in neighboring Albania and northern Macedonia and northern Kosovo and Montenegro.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, to convey solidarity and offer help if needed, according to officials from the two neighboring countries, which are long-standing regional rivals.
Albania’s Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka also called on Dendias to express her support.
In Athens, seismologist Vassilis Karastathis told reporters that the quake originated at a fault line in the area that has historically not produced earthquakes of much greater magnitude than on Wednesday. He said post-earthquake activity seemed normal so far, but experts were monitoring the situation.
“The earthquake had an estimated depth of only 8 kilometers (5 miles) and that was one of the reasons it felt so strong in the region,” said Karastathis, who is the deputy director of the Geodynamic Institute of Athens.
The head of the Greek armed forces was in the area affected by the quake to help the emergency service and firefighting helicopters were used before nightfall to assess damage to buildings around central Greek cities. of Tyrnavos, Elasona and other places near the epicenter.
The fire department said it had received several calls on Wednesday to deal with medical emergencies, helping patients with various chronic conditions to access the hospital, already affected by the pandemic.
Greece is in a very seismically active region. The vast majority of earthquakes do not cause damage or injury, many of which occur under the sea.
Last October, an earthquake that hit the island of Samos, east of the Aegean, off the 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 collaborated in Athens, Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey. ___
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