An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale occurred at 06:18am on Friday off the coast of Crete.

The earthquake, described as “very strong”, was recorded in the sea area 25 kilometers south-southwest of the village of Goudouras, in the Lassithi regional unit of Crete, or 405 kilometers south-southeast of the capital, according to data from the Geodynamic Institute of National Observatory of Athens.

The earthquake was strongly felt in a large part of the mainly southern coast, with residents of areas of both Sitia and Ierapetra getting out of bed. According to Mayor of Sitia George Zervakis, “the earthquake was intense and had a long duration. This caused inconvenience to residents, who are still feeling tremors, as aftershocks are likely to be recorded.”

Both the mayor of Sitia and the mayor of Ierapetra Manolis Fragoulis, who have been in contact, as they stressed early this morning, with all agencies, are recommending calm to citizens, stressing that the phenomenon is being monitored.

From the checks that have been made so far and by the Fire Department, there have been no reports of disasters. However, so far, five more earthquakes have been recorded in the same area, after the 5.7-magnitude tremor, with intensities ranging from 3.5 to 3.8 magnitude.

The president of the OASP, Ethymios Lekkas, spoke to ERTnews about the earthquake. He said, “I think it is an earthquake that would have been felt over a wide range both in Crete and in Kasos and Karpathos, but we don’t have more data at the moment. We are basically waiting for the recordings so we can assess the whole situation.”

Lassithi deputy regional governor Yiannis Androulakis, shortly after the strong earthquake that woke up residents, told ERTnews: “The earthquake was felt throughout Eastern Crete. We have already contacted the Municipality of Ierapetra since the focal point was south of the Municipality of Ierapetra.

We are waiting to see if there are any issues, problems and questions. We have already put the civil protection of the Regional Unit on standby, so we are waiting for developments. It’s had a duration, we’re used to earthquakes in general and we trust all the building codes that are in place. But there are also areas with older houses, where in cooperation with the municipalities we will see if there is a problem.”

</html