Santorini: Thousands flee when earthquakes hit Greek island

Editor’s Note: Sign Up Locking of the World, CNN Travel’s Weekly Newsletter. Get news about destinations plus the latest in aviation, food and drink and where to live.

Cnn
–

Thousands of people have fled from the island Santorini As hundreds of earthquakes continued to course through the famous Greek tourist destination.

More than 6,000 inhabitants have left the island in recent days, according to the Greek public television station ERT. Early Tuesday morning, hundreds of people who carry their belongings were seen waiting for a port on the island, waiting for a ferry to take them to Athens.

A shaking with a size of 4.8 was recorded early Tuesday, just shy for a 4.9 earthquake that was recorded this weekend – the strongest so far. Over the past three days, about 550 tremors have been recorded with a size of 3.0 in the Aegean Sea between Santorini and the nearby islands of Amorgos and iOS.

Greece’s earthquake planning and protective organization (OASP) has estimated that the intense seismic activity can continue for many more days, if not weeks.

Santorini, called Greece’s “Instagram Island”, attracts approx. 3.4 million visitors a year, but is only home to about 20,000 permanent residents. Many of them have decided to flee the island of the mainland safety.

“I work on the island, I’ve been a resident for years. But today … Nobody expected this to happen, what’s happening now on the island is incredible, ”Julian Sinanaj, a 35-year-old resident, told Reuters.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday called on residents to remain calm as authorities deal with “a very intense geological phenomenon.”

Additional aircraft have been announced to help residents get to safety with 15 flights from Santorini to Athens scheduled for Tuesday. Schools on the island remain closed until Friday, and residents have been asked to avoid large indoor gatherings.

“Everything is closed. No one is working now. The whole island is emptied, ”Dori, an 18-year-old resident, told Reuters.

Santorini sits near the border of the massive African and Eurasian tectonic plates and is no stranger to the shaking, although almost constant seismic events like this are rare.

The island is famous for its caldera-one bowl-shaped crater caused by a volcanic eruption-which was formed by one of the largest known blasts about 3,600 years ago.

Santorini’s latest large earthquake – with a 7.5 size – hit in 1956, killed at least 53 people and injured more than 100 others.