Tourists in Crete were shaken and buildings damaged after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the north-east coast in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The quake struck at 6.19 local time (3.19am GMT), roughly 60 kilometres north-east off the Greek island, with various geoscientific survey agencies reporting its depth from between 37 and 87 kilometres deep.
Tremors were felt across islands in the Aegean Sea, including in parts of Turkey and Israel, while residents and visitors to Crete awoke to tremors, and some described to daily Greek newspaper Ethnos hearing a loud roar following the tremors.
Earthquake and Planning Protection Organisation director Efthymios Lekkas noted that deeper earthquakes typically cause less surface damage.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre earlier issued a tsunami warning following the quake.
Regional government official Giorgos Tsapakos told state-run television that “there are no reports of injuries or any serious damage” following initial assessments of the affected areas.
Emergency services were on high alert following the quake, but the fire brigade said it had not received any calls for assistance and so far there had been no reports of serious damage.
A landslide in the Viannos municipality threw rocks and debris across a road near Tertsa, with a clean-up crew already sent out to clear the damage, Cretapost reported.
School buildings across the island of Crete were inspected for damage, local media reported, but no issues had been reported but some school trips had been cancelled as a precaution.
A central road in the Cretan port city of Iraklio was cordoned off after chunks of cracked plaster from a damaged and abandoned building crashed to the ground.
Images and video from Crete show grocery items strewn across shop floors following the quake.
The mayor of Arkalochori told Cretapost that no problems were caused in his municipality, and schools would remain open as usual.
“This earthquake was a piece of cake for us,” he told the publication.
Civil protection minister Ioannis Kefalogiannis was travelling to Crete to inspect the earthquake’s damage.
“Fortunately, initial reports indicate that due to its significant depth, there has been no major damage,” he told reporters outside Athens before he left.
Greece is one of the most seismically active regions in Europe, situated along a complex fault boundary between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates. While most quakes are mild, stronger ones – such as the deadly 2021 quake also centred near Crete – have caused damage in the past.
With additional reporting from AP
