Thousands leave as fresh tremors shake Greece’s Santorini

THOUSANDS of people were leaving the Greek island of Santorini by sea and air for a third day on Tuesday, as an unprecedented series of earthquakes shook the top travel destination.
Some 6,000 people have already left the island, known for its spectacular cliffside views and a dormant volcano, which has been hit by hundreds of tremors since last week, officials said.
A quake with a magnitude of 4.9 hit early on Tuesday morning amid other smaller tremors. No injuries or damage were reported on Santorini and the neighbouring islands of Anafi, Ios and Amorgos, which have also been affected by the seismic activity.
Experts say the region has not experienced seismic activity on this scale in recent history and do not know how long it will last.
“This is the first time this is happening, we have not seen it before,” Athanassios Ganas, research director at the national observatory’s institute of geodynamics, told state TV ERT.
He noted that the area had been hit with over 40 earthquakes with a magnitude of over 4.0 in the past 72 hours. Santorini lies atop a volcano which last erupted in 1950 — but an experts’ committee on Monday said the current phenomenon was “not linked to volcanic activity”.
According to the Greek coastguard, over 4,600 people have left the island by ferry since Sunday alone. — AFP

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar