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A powerful 5.3 magnitude earthquake rocked a Greek holiday hotspot today, with tourists left fearing for their lives.
The huge quake took place at 4.26 pm local time on Wednesday, with the epicentre around 13 miles off the coast of Antikythera, Greece’s Geodynamic Institute said.
The tremble, which had a focal depth of 36 miles, was reportedly felt in some parts of the Greek holiday island of Crete, which is popular among British tourists.
No casualties have been reported, but locals described how terrified tourists ‘jumped out of their sun loungers and asked if this was normal and if there was a fear of a tsunami’.
Others described how the tremor made items in their homes move and how they heard loud banging sounds as buildings swayed.
One local said that ‘it felt like the whole building moved slightly’, while another described how they ‘heard a rumble’ as the ‘house shook.’
According to Earthquakes.Gr, a 2.6 magnitude quake was detected at around 5.30am this morning, followed by a 2.2 magnitude tremor at 6.40am.
The epicentre of all these tremors were located between Antikythera and Crete.
The Greek island of Antikythera lies just south of the Peloponnese peninsula and northwest of Crete and is a growing tourist destination thanks to its ancient Greek ruins and stunning beaches.
Crete, meanwhile, is Greece’s largest and one of its most famous islands, drawing in millions of holidaymakers every year.
The earthquake off the coast of Greece comes a month after hundreds of firefighters battled raging wildfires off the island of Chios.
Towering walls of flames tore through forest and agricultural land on the island, where authoritieS sent firefighting reinforcements from Athens, the northern city of Thessaloniki and the nearby island of Lesbos.
Apocalyptic scenes captured in images and videos showed firefighters battling the flames as the wildfires raged on, while thick plumes of black smoke filled the sky.
Other footage showed helicopters spraying water over smoke-filled fields.
It also comes just five days after a powerful earthquake hit the Italian city of Naples and its surrounding region.
Local residents reported hearing a ‘roar’ and feeling a ‘strong tremor’ as the 4.6 magnitude quake struck at around 9.15 am last Friday.
The epicentre of the earthquake was just off the coast of the highly active Phlegraean Fields, a volcanic caldera west of the city, at a depth of 1.5 miles.
Multiple people living nearby in the seaside town of Bagnoli said it ‘seemed like a bomb’ had gone off when the quake hit.
It measured the same magnitude as an earthquake recorded in the region on March 13, the strongest to hit the region in 40 years.
‘We rocked a lot… I’m still shaking,’ one woman, living in the Vomero district of the city, told La Repubblica.
Another local, who lives in the western Fuorigrotta suburb, described the experience as ‘terrifying’.
Rail traffic has been temporarily suspended in the city, which is home to more than 900,000 people.
This is a breaking story, more to follow.
