Greece has been hit by magnitude 5.9 quake with tremors being felt across the country, in the country’s capital and across the Greek islands.
The quake struck off the coast of the Peloponnese, in the south of the country, with islands as far as Crete experiencing tremors.
Tremors are also being felt as far away as Malta. The Malta Seismic Monitoring Group recorded two earthquakes in the Mediterranean.
The earthquake’s epicentre was in the middle of the sea, to the west of the town of Filiatra.
The earthquake struck off the west coast of the Peloponnese
EMSC
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but that the quake was felt widely from Athens and across the Greek islands.
The earthquake originated around 10.5miles below the sea bed close to the Strofades island.
The Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (CSEM) reported the 5.9 magnitude quake and a number of apparent aftershocks in and around Greece this morning, including a 2.4 magnitude tremor in the region of Crete and a 2.5 magnitude quake in the Aegean Sea.
Three smaller earthquakes were also reported in southern Greece within the space of nine minutes, between 8:21am and 8:30am.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
The earthquake magnitude of the earthquake was 5.9 on the Richter scale
EMSC
Reports of rooms shaking and people being woken from bed appeared across social media.
According to the Maltese seismic monitoring group, two earthquakes were recorded in the Mediterranean on Friday morning.
Another 6.9 magnitude earthquake was felt from the central Mediterranean, close to the north African coast.
Gerasimos Papadopoulos, a seismologist, told ERT (Greece’s national broadcaster): “It’s still too early to tell if this is a major earthquake.
Geology professor, Eythimios Lekkas told Proto Thema: “It’s two separate earthquakes to the west of Filiatra.
“Neither of the two quakes are causing much worry at the moment because of how deep into the water the epicentre was.”
One resident of the island of Zakynthos (Zante), located to the north of the epicentre said on social media: “Zakynthos moved so much it was like samba dancing!!!!”
Another resident on the island of Zakynthos wrote: “When I saw the notification of the strength of the quake I thought it was in Japan with how strong it was! It started shaking like a playground swing without much noise though.”
A resident from the city of Patras, described it like “being on a boat”, while another claimed: “Half of Greece rocked probably due to the depth of the quake.”
