3 hours ago
3
Thousands of residents are fleeing the Greek land of Santorini amid a question of seismic activity.
Some 6,000 radical person near the land by ferry since Sunday, according to section media, with exigency flights scheduled to permission connected Tuesday.
More than 300 earthquakes person been recorded successful the past 48 hours adjacent the land - and immoderate experts accidental tremors whitethorn proceed for weeks. Authorities person closed schools for the full week and warned against ample indoor gatherings, but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has urged calm.
Santorini is simply a fashionable tourer destination known for its whitewashed buildings, but astir of those leaving are locals, arsenic February is extracurricular the highest tourer season.
Several tremors, measuring up to magnitude 4.7, were recorded north-east of Santorini aboriginal connected Tuesday.
Though nary large harm has been reported truthful far, exigency measures are being taken arsenic a precaution.
Hundreds of radical queued astatine a larboard successful the aboriginal hours of Tuesday greeting to committee a ferry leaving for the mainland.
"Everything is closed. No-one works now. The full land has emptied," an 18-year-old section nonmigratory told Reuters quality bureau earlier boarding the vessel.
In summation to 6,000 radical who person near the land by ferry since Sunday, astir 2,500 to 2,700 passengers volition person flown from Santorini to Athens via level connected Monday and Tuesday, according to Aegean Airlines.
The bearer said it had added 3 exigency flights to its schedule, with abstraction for hundreds of passengers, pursuing a petition from the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection.
Santorini is simply a tiny land with a colonisation of conscionable 15,500. It welcomes millions of tourists each year.
Kostas Sakavaras, a circuit usher who has lived connected Santorini for 18 years, near the land with his woman and children connected Monday.
"We considered it's a amended prime to travel to the mainland arsenic a precaution," helium told BBC News.
"Nothing has been falling, oregon thing similar that," helium said, adding that the worst portion had been the sound. "That's the astir scary portion of it," said Mr Sakavaras, who plans to instrumentality location erstwhile schools reopen.
Schools are scheduled to enactment closed connected the land until Friday. Authorities person besides warned radical to debar definite areas of the land and bare their swimming pools.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis said connected Monday that Greece was moving to negociate "a precise aggravated geological phenomenon".
Seismologists see the caller tremors to beryllium minor, but preventive measures person been enactment successful spot successful lawsuit a larger quake occurs.
Emergency services person warned residents to permission the areas of Ammoudi, Armeni and the Old Port of Fira owed to landslides.
The South Aegean Regional Fire Department has been placed connected wide alert and rescue teams person been dispatched, with crews lasting ticker by ample yellowish aesculapian tents connected the island.
Santorini is connected what is known arsenic the Hellenic Volcanic Arc - a concatenation of islands created by volcanoes - but the past large eruption was successful the 1950s.
Greek authorities said that the caller tremors were related to tectonic sheet movements alternatively of volcanic activity.
English (US)