Powerful 5.3 magnitude earthquake shakes Greece

A powerful 5.3 magnitude earthquake rocked Greece today between the islands of Crete and Antikythera.

The quake took place at 4.26 pm local time on Wednesday, with the epicentre around 13 miles off the coast of Antikythera, Greece’s Geodynamic Institute said. 

The tremble, which had a focal depth of 36 miles, was reportedly felt in some parts of the Greek island of Crete, as well as in Peloponnese and Attica. 

No casualties have been reported. 

Locals described how the tremor made items in their homes move and how they heard loud banging sounds. 

One local said that ‘it felt like the whole building moved slightly’, while another described how they ‘heard a rumble’ as the ‘house shook.’

Another person said: ‘We were shaken a lot!! First a jolt and then movement right and left!! Tourists jumped out of their sun loungers and asked if this was normal and if there was a fear of a tsunami’. 

It comes just five days after a powerful earthquake hit the Italian city of Naples and its surrounding region. 

Local residents reported hearing a ‘roar’ and feeling a ‘strong tremor’ as the 4.6 magnitude quake struck at around 9.15 am last Friday. 

The epicentre of the earthquake was just off the coast of the highly active Phlegraean Fields, a volcanic caldera west of the city, at a depth of 1.5 miles. 

Multiple people living nearby in the seaside town of Bagnoli said it ‘seemed like a bomb’ had gone off when the quake hit.

It measured the same magnitude as an earthquake recorded in the region on March 13, the strongest to hit the region in 40 years.

‘We rocked a lot… I’m still shaking,’ one woman, living in the Vomero district of the city, told La Repubblica.

Another local, who lives in the western Fuorigrotta suburb, described the experience as ‘terrifying’.

Rail traffic has been temporarily suspended in the city, which is home to more than 900,000 people.

This is a breaking story, more to follow.