Earthquake rocks Athens, sending city's residents rushing into streets - New York Post

A strong earthquake rocked the Greek capital, Athens, on Friday, sending residents rushing into the streets, causing power outages and leaving people stuck in elevators.

The 5.1-magnitude temblor struck at 2:13 p.m. local time 14 miles northwest of the capital, near Magoula, at a depth of about 8 miles, CNN reported, citing the Athens Institute of Geodynamics.

The US Geological Survey gave it a preliminary magnitude of 5.3.

Seven aftershocks also struck, with the largest measuring 3.1, according to the Greek institute.

“There are no reports of serious injuries,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told local media. “There are confirmed reports of building damage in some areas of Attica.”

He added that firefighters were evacuating people stuck in elevators across the city, where at least two abandoned buildings collapsed.

“It was a very intense quake, we were terrified, everyone started coming out (of the building),” said Katerina, who works in a six-story cosmetics store, according to AFP.

Debris that fell from an abandoned building during an earthquake sits in an alleyway in Athens.EPA

“It was more like an explosion,” another woman told state TV ERT on central Syntagma Square. “We were all very afraid, so we’ll stay here for a couple of hours.”

Efthymios Lekkas, head of the state anti-quake protection agency, said there was no reason for alarm.

“The capital’s buildings are built to withstand a much stronger earthquake,” he told ERT.

The epicenter was close to where a 5.9-magnitude earthquake left 143 people dead in and near Athens in 1999.

A woman walks past damaged buildings in the city’s downtown following an earthquake in Athens.Reuters

Gerasimos Papadopoulos, senior seismologist at the Geodynamics Institute, said Friday’s quake was felt across southern Greece.

“It had a very shallow depth, and that’s why it was felt so strongly,” he said. “It is too early to say whether this was the main earthquake, but there have been aftershocks of magnitude 3.5, 2.5 and 3.2, and that is encouraging. But we need more time and data to have a clear picture.”

Greece, one of the most earthquake-prone countries in Europe, is situated at a convergence point where three massive plates of the Earth’s crust — Eurasian, Arabic and African — grind together.

With Post wires

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2019-07-19 15:15:00Z
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