Hundreds of people in villages in central Greece had to spend a second night in a row, that from Thursday to Friday, in tents or in their cars, after the new strong earthquake that hit the region of Larissa, without hurting priori of victims.
"Fortunately we have not had any victims so far," explains Chryssoula Katsiouli, an employee of the town hall of Elassona, a town near the villages of Damasi, Mesochori, Amouri, Domeniko and Tyrnavos affected by the earthquakes.
Thursday night's earthquake triggered a new wave of panic in these villages located nearly 250 km north of Athens and where "new tents are being erected" to meet the needs of residents, according to Chryssoula Katsiouli.
"We were all very scared, people took to the streets again on Thursday evening and many people spent the night in their cars," she said.
With a magnitude of 5.6 according to the USGS and 5.9 according to the Athens Observatory, Thursday evening's earthquake occurred the day after that of 6.3 which had injured eleven.
More than 300 houses, mostly old ones, hospitals, schools and churches have been damaged and hundreds of tents are pitched in the Damasi stadium.
Additional damage
The prefect of Thessaly, Konstantinos Agorastos, told Ert public television on Friday that there had been no new landslides after the second earthquake, but that "the condition of the buildings damaged on Wednesday was worsened".
“People are afraid to go home or go to hotels,” he told media before attending a meeting in Larisa with civil protection officials and mayors in the region.
According to firefighters, "rocks fell in Kalabaka near Meteora", a geological site classified as World Heritage by Unesco, comprising about twenty Orthodox monasteries, 90 km northwest of the epicenter.
Thursday's earthquake occurred 5 km north of the epicenter of Wednesday's which was 10 miles from Elassona, Greek seismologist Efthymis Lekkas told media, saying it was not aftershocks but a new main earthquake.
Several aftershocks between 4.1 and 5.7 were recorded after the two earthquakes felt in the region.
