Residents run into the streets as earthquake shakes Athens
A strong earthquake centred north-west of Athens caused frightened residents to run into the Greek capital’s streets and damaged several buildings.
The Athens Institute of Geodynamics gave the earthquake that struck at 2:13pm local time a preliminary magnitude of 5.1. The US Geological Survey reported a magnitude of 5.3.
Firefighters checked for people trapped in lifts amid power outages after the brief but jolting quake.
In central Athens, the Acropolis Museum was evacuated and closed for the rest of the day as a precaution but the city’s ancient monuments remained open.
The strongest after shock had a magnitude of 4.3, almost an hour after the initial quake hit.
Police patrols and helicopters were deployed to inspect areas close to the earthquake’s epicentre near the town of Magoula.
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said an abandoned building collapsed in western Athens and several other abandoned buildings elsewhere in the city had serious damage.
“I urge members of the public to remains calm. In Greece, we are well-acquainted with earthquakes,” he said.
There were reports that the fire service, which has received 76 calls according to local media, rescued over a dozen people trapped in elevators following the power outage.
A pregnant tourist visiting the Archaeological Museum was hospitalised after she was accidentally struck by another tourist’s elbow as they rushed for the exit.
Reports suggest at least three people were hurt by falling plaster. The shaking was caught on live cameras in the studios of state broadcaster ERT. An old residence and an empty building have collapsed, Greek media said. Other buildings were also damaged and pieces of marble have fallen from the Agia Irini church into the road.
One visitor, Alex, from Manchester, said the earthquake lasted a few seconds.
She said: “I don’t think it was super serious, I’m not an Athens native and I’m from the UK so it shocked me and my family a lot – we never experience earthquakes. I was actually asleep at the time, so I was very scared initially.
“Everything seems normal, the apartment I’m in is hidden from the main street view, but no noticed damage.”
Seismologists say the earthquake was around eight miles from the surface.
Experts added that Athens is built on solid ground, so there is less potential for damage to the Ancient Greek monuments in the city, which date back thousands of years.
Gerasimos Papadopoulos, the senior seismologist at the Geodynamics Institute, said it was felt across southern Greece, including in the region of Peloponnese.
“It had a very shallow depth and that’s why it was felt so strongly,” he said, adding that the earthquake had been followed by a normal pattern of aftershocks.”
The most powerful quake to hit the Greek capital in the last 20 years came in 1999, when a quake of magnitude 6.0 caused extensive damage and killed more than 140 people.
Athens lies on several fault lines. The risk of earthquakes increases the further you go towards the extremities of Greece.