Magnitude 5.1 earthquake jolts Athens, three people injured

Published Jul 19, 2019

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ATHENS - A magnitude 5.1 earthquake

rattled the Greek capital Athens on Friday, briefly knocking out

power and telecommunications in parts of the city and sending

people running from buildings in panic.

The European Earthquake Monitoring Centre recorded the

quake's epicentre at a point 22 km northwest of the

city. Its website quoted a witness as saying the quake was

"strong but fortunately not very long", while another compared

it to a "strong bounce" lasting about 15 seconds.

The Acropolis, a complex of ancient Greek buildings

including the Parthenon located on a rocky hilltop overlooking

the capital, was intact, according to the authorities. It is one

of the world's most visited historical landmarks.

Reuters correspondents saw people evacuating buildings in

the sprawling capital, and hundreds crammed into central

Syntagma Square.

Three people including a Belgian tourist were lightly

injured by falling debris, health ministry officials said. In

the port city of Piraeus, an abandoned structure on a port quay

collapsed.

The quake occurred at a depth of 15 km (9.3 miles) in an

area affected by earthquakes in the past. Greece, along with

Turkey, is among the most tremor-prone regions of Europe.

"The earthquake was close to the surface, which is why it

was felt so much," seismologist Manolis Skordilis told Greece's

Star TV.

Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said

there had been 30 calls asking the fire brigade for help in

rescuing people trapped in elevators, while some abandoned

buildings were damaged.

He said the sequence of post-quake tremors was normal, which

the Athens Geodynamic Institute considered to be a positive

sign.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the response of

state services to the earthquake was satisfactory.

"We have learned to live with earthquakes, this was one more

quake," he told reporters after visiting the civil protection

coordinating centre in Athens, a metropolis of almost 4 million

people.

"The situation is gradually subsiding. The city withstood

this and can handle it. There is no cause for concern," said

Nikos Hardalias, general secretary for Civil Protection.

Around 40 minutes after the first tremor, residents felt

another strong quake, which the EMC rated magnitude 4.4, with an

epicentre in the same region at the foot of Mount Parnitha.

In 1999, an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 in the same area

killed 143 people.

Reuters

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