A man working in a church that collapsed on Monday was killed in a strong earthquake that struck the Greek island of Crete, according to the Greek public television "ERT." The earthquake measured 5.8 on the Richter scale according to the Athens Observatory for Seismic Activity and 6 according to the United States Geological Survey, occurring at 06:17 GMT, approximately 23 kilometers from Heraklion, the capital of Crete. Significant damage was reported in the agricultural town of Arkalochori, where the worker died and serious damage was recorded, according to Spiro Giorgio, a spokesperson for civil protection, who also reported that nine people were injured.
The earthquake struck at a depth of ten kilometers, with its epicenter located 346 kilometers south of Athens, as per the observatory's report. Public television aired scenes of damage, notably the collapse of old houses in Arkalochori near Heraklion. Seismologist Efthymios Lekas, head of the Earthquake Prevention Organization, stated, "We did not expect this earthquake; aftershocks of 4.5 in magnitude are currently being recorded."
Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides is scheduled to visit the island of Crete in the coming hours, accompanied by Lekas and a team from natural disaster response agencies, according to the television report. Greece is situated on several geological faults and frequently experiences earthquakes. The last fatal earthquake occurred on March 3 in Elassona, central Greece, resulting in one death and ten injuries, causing significant damage. On October 30, 2020, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck in the Aegean Sea between the Greek island of Samos and the Turkish city of Izmir, resulting in the deaths of two people in Samos and 114 in Turkey.
