A few thousand inhabitants of Santorini have left this world famous island in Greece, hit again on Monday, February 3, by seismic tremors, despite the Calls for Calm of the Prime Minister.
More than 200 telluric tremors have been recorded since Sunday off this tourist island of the Cyclades archipelago, in the Aegean Sea, known in particular for its blue -shaped cupola chapels hanging on volcanic cliffs. The strongest shock reached a magnitude of 4.9 Monday in the middle of the day, according to the Geodynamic Institute of the Athens Observatory.
“We must manage a very intense geological phenomenon”warned Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Brussels. “I wish above all to ask the residents of the island to remain calm”he added.
Since Sunday, a few thousand residents have left the island, which has 15,500 permanent inhabitants, frightened by the intense frequency of these tremors in particular in the last two days. About a thousand passengers embarked on Monday afternoon aboard a ferry to Piraeus, the Grand Port south of Athens, reported journalists from the France-Presse (AFP) agency on site.
More than a thousand people had already left Santorini on Sunday. “Last night, we checked, the [ferry] Blue Star Chios had 1,100 people on board from Santorini on board ”said a coast guard to AFP. However, AFP noticed any panic movement of the inhabitants. Files have been formed calm in front of certain local travel agencies. According to an employee of a travel agency, an additional ferry is expected to leave Santorini on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
The epicenter of the 4.9 magnitude earthquake is located between Santorini and the island near Anafi, also touristy, reported the geodynamic institute. A few minutes after the shock, the residents received an alert message on their mobile phones that they “Risk of landslide” in some villages.
Schools closed all week
The airline Aegean Airlines chartered additional flights on Monday and Tuesday at the start and to Santorini, according to the Ana news agency. All schools on the island as well as neighboring islands of Amorgos and iOS will remain closed until Friday, have decided the authorities.
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According to seismologists, seismic activity also affects other nearby, also touristy islands, such as Anafi, iOS and Amorgos, famous since part of the film The big blue was turned there.
The United Kingdom and Germany recommended that on-site travelers follow the advice of the Greek Civil Protection Ministry. The authorities keep calling for the greatest vigilance. Local residents must keep away from certain Santorini ports, empty their pools and avoid rallies inside the buildings. But the Minister of Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, repeated in Parliament in Athens that all the measures adopted so far were “Preventive”. Athens insisted that tremors were not the result of a volcanic activity but of a tectonic activity.
Santorini is one of the volcanic islands of the most popular cyclades of tourists: it welcomed 3.4 million in 2023, to the point of arouse concerns about the phenomenon of surcourism. But tourists are rare at this time of year.
In 1956, the island was affected by an earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale which had killed around fifty people and caused a tsunami. Santorini's spectacular landscape was created by a volcanic eruption around 1,600 years before our era.
Source: Lemonde