Strength 5.2! earthquake rocks crete island

The residents of Crete were woken up by the earthquake on Saturday morning. Already on Wednesday two strong earthquakes hit the Greek island.

A 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck the Greek island of Crete on Saturday morning. According to the Geodynamic Institute of Athens, the epicenter of the quake was south of the coast of the resort town of Irapetra at a depth of about five kilometers.

The earthquake was felt by people across the island at around 7:15 am. “So far, we have not received any reports of injuries or damages,” the mayor of the nearby port city of Sitia said on state radio. Crete lies north of a deep tectonic rift where the African and European tectonic plates meet.

Already on Wednesday afternoon, two strong aftershocks 15 minutes apart had startled people on the Greek holiday island of Samos. The tremors were ten kilometers south of the island, about 13 kilometers below sea level.

According to the Geodynamic Institute of Athens, the first had a magnitude of 4.8, the second had a magnitude of 5.2. A spokesman for the island rescue service said on television that at the first tremors, people ran out into the streets in panic.