Earthquakes rattle Santorini, driving tourist exodus from Greece's volcanic island
London — Tourists continued to flee the Greek island of Santorini on Wednesday — a fourth consecutive day of exodus sparked by a series of earthquakes that have rattled the incredibly popular European vacation destination. Around 7,000 people have left the island, which sits southeast of Greece's mainland, since the quakes began last week, according to the AFP news agency.
Most of the visitors have left Santorini by ferry, but there have also been flights out.
As of Tuesday, more than 1,000 earthquakes, with magnitudes up to 5.2 on the Richter scale, had been recorded near the island, most of them centered only about 15 miles from its shores in the Aegean Sea, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
Efthimios Lekkas, head of the state-run Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, told Greek national television that the earthquakes were moving north, away from the island, according to The Associated Press.
"This may last several days or several weeks," he said. "We are not able to predict the evolution of the sequence in time."
It is that unpredictability of earthquakes that has driven people away from the island — nobody can say for sure whether the hundreds of small quakes mean a bigger temblor is on the way.
"I understand the fear of what it means at the moment to be on a Santorini that is constantly moving," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, urging residents to stay calm and follow any instructions provided by officials.
Experts told the French news agency AFP the region had not experienced such intense seismic activity since records began in 1964.
Santorini sits atop a volcano that has not erupted since 1950, but a committee of experts said Monday that the current rash of quakes was "not linked to volcanic activity."
"It's different this time"
While the earthquakes have left cracks in some buildings, no substantial damage or injuries have been reported. The neighboring islands of Anafi, Ios and Amorgos have also reported no casualties.
Schools on all four islands have also been closed for the week as a precaution, and Santorini has cancelled public events and restricted arrivals to the island.
About 3.4 million people visited Santorini in 2023, according to the AFP.
Panagiotis Hatzigeorgiou, a retired police officer and ship worker who has lived on the island for over 30 years, told the AP he wouldn't be leaving, despite invites to stay with relatives in the Greek capital, Athens.
"Older residents are used to the earthquakes," he said. "But it's different this time. It's not the same to have earthquakes every two to three minutes."
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