Crete was shaken Tuesday, September 28 by new aftershocks in the aftermath of a strong earthquake that killed one man and left eleven injured as well as many homeless due to material damage.
The strongest of the aftershocks was a magnitude 5.3 at 7:48 a.m. local time, the Athens Geodynamic Observatory said as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, from the island, prepared to visit the site. .
Read also Greece: a strong earthquake in Crete kills one and injures eleven
According to the results of an initial inspection, a thousand buildings were damaged by Monday's earthquake, the epicenter of which was at a depth of 10 kilometers, near the small town of Arkalochori where a construction worker was killed then that he worked in a church whose roof collapsed.
Eleven other people were hospitalized, mostly suffering from fractures.
"The night was very difficult"
After the main earthquake, the Athens Observatory recorded more than thirty aftershocks in five hours on Monday, the most important of which were of magnitude 4.6.
"
The night was very difficult, we had a lot of aftershocks
", confided to public radio ERT the head of the community of Arkalochori Chryssoula Kegeroglou, "
we stayed up all night
".
Read alsoPandemia: in Crete, Heraklion in turn subject to a curfew
Authorities have pitched tents and mobilized dozens of hotel rooms to shelter the hundreds of people whose homes have been deemed too dangerous to return to settle.
According to Kegeroglou, a thousand people slept in tents.
Greece is crossed by important geological faults and earthquakes are frequent.
The last deadly earthquake occurred on March 3 in central Greece, in Elassona, leaving one dead and ten injured as well as extensive damage.
On October 30, 2020, a magnitude 7 earthquake rocked the Aegean Sea between the Greek island of Samos and the Turkish city of Izmir, killing 114 in Turkey and two in Samos.