Strong earthquake in Crete kills one and injures nine

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of at least 5.8 struck the Greek island of Crete on Monday, killing one person and injuring several others, while damaging homes and churches and causing rock slides near the country's fourth-largest city.

The quake sent people fleeing into the streets in the city of Heraklion, and schools were evacuated. Repeated aftershocks rattled the area, adding to damage in villages near the epicenter.

“The earthquake was strong and was long in duration,” Heraklion mayor Vassilis Lambrinos told private Antenna television.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute, which gave the 5.8 magnitude, said the quake struck at 9:17 a.m. (0617 GMT), with an epicenter 246 kilometers (153 miles) south southeast of the Greek capital, Athens.

“This is not an event that occurred without warning. We have seen activity in this region for several months. This was a strong earthquake, it was not under sea but under land and affecting populated areas,” seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos said on Greece’s state broadcaster ERT.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center and the U.S. Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude of 6.0, with an epicenter seven kilometers (four miles) north of the village of Thrapsano. It is common for different seismological institutes to give varying magnitudes for an earthquake in the initial hours and days after an event.

Greece's Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Ministry said one person had been killed and a further nine people suffered injuries. The man who died was pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed church in the village of Arkalochori, very close to the epicenter, authorities said.

“It appears that until now we don't have fellow citizens trapped," government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said during a media briefing about three hours after the quake struck.

Seismologist Efthimios Lekkas, who heads Greece's Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, said inspections of critical buildings such as schools and hospitals had already begun.

“We are urging people who live in damaged older buildings to remain outdoors. One aftershock can cause a collapse,” Lekkas said from Crete. “We are talking about structures built before 1970. Structures built after 1985 are built to a higher standard that can withstand the effect of an earthquake.”

Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides, who traveled to Crete, said measures would be taken for those who couldn't spend the night in their homes, potentially including providing rooms in hotels. Local media said hundreds of homes had been damaged.

Local officials said they had enough capacity to temporarily house 300 people in tents.

The fire department said it was flying 30 members of its disaster response units with sniffer dogs and specialized rescue equipment to Crete, while all its disaster response units and the fire department services on Crete were placed on general alert.

Numerous aftershocks struck the area, with the EMSC giving a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 for the two strongest.

International and domestic flights to Heraklion airport weren't affected by the quake, while the region's hoteliers association said there was no serious damage to any hotels in the area, which includes many popular holiday resorts.