Powerful Aegean earthquake causes mini-tsunami on Greek island of Samos

 

A “mini-tsunami” occurred on the Greek island of Samos, in the Aegean Sea, and material damage in buildings was recorded following a strong earthquake of magnitude 6.7 which struck this island from the Aegean Sea, according to Greek public television ERT. The earthquake recorded off the island and near the Turkish city of Izmir, which was also hit by the earthquake, caused the walls of several houses to collapse and flooding in the port of Samos, according to reports. images broadcast by ERT.

“It was chaos, we have never experienced this… For now, we have no victims. Some buildings were damaged, a church in particular ”, located in the port of Karlovassi, told ERT Giorgos Dionysiou, vice-mayor of Samos. Strongly felt in Samos, but also on the island of Crete as well as in Athens, the earthquake, of a significant duration, “was recorded at 11 h 51 GMT and its epicenter is located 19 kilometers off Samos and 2 kilometers deep, ”according to a press release from the Observatory, which initially had evolved to 6.6 this earthquake.

The inhabitants called to be careful

According to Sharif Mohamed, an Iraqi refugee living in Vathi camp, “everyone was afraid and the police called to get away from the sea”. The Greek civil protection warned by SMS the inhabitants of Samos to stay “in the open air and away from buildings”, and to “move away from the coasts” of the island. Samos airport will remain closed until 3 p.m. GMT to verify that no damage has been identified, according to the Greek news agency ANA.

Greece is located on major geological faults and earthquakes are frequent there, especially at sea, most often without causing any casualties. The last deadly earthquake, magnitude 6.7, took place on the island of Kos, near Samos, in the Dodecanese archipelago, in the Aegean Sea, in July 2017, killing two people.

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