ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — A 5.2-magnitude quake jolted central Greece on Saturday, the country’s civil protection said, with no immediate reports of damage.
The quake had a depth of around 14 kilometres (8.6 miles) and an epicentre near the town of Galaxidi in the Gulf of Corinth, some 200 kilometres (320 miles) northwest of the Greek capital, the authority said.
The national geodynamic institute had earlier measured the earthquake at a magnitude of 5.3.
“It was a strong earthquake felt in the general area and in Athens as well,” Efthymios Lekkas, head of Greece’s earthquake planning and protection agency, told state TV ERT.
“The situation is under control and we are monitoring it. There are many fault lines in the Gulf of Corinth,” he said.
Seismologists will know if this was the main tremor in about 48 hours, Lekkas said.
Local mayors said inspection crews had not reported any significant damage.
Greece lies on major fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes, but they rarely cause casualties.
In July 2017 a 6.7-magnitude earthquake killed two people on the island of Kos in the Aegean sea, causing significant damage.
In 1999, a 5.9-magnitude quake killed 143 people in Athens and the region northwest of the capital.
© Agence France-Presse
