(ANSA-AFP) - ATHENS, MAR 3 - A strong 6.3-magnitude
earthquake hit central Greece on Wednesday, damaging several
buildings, including schools, and prompting residents near the
epicentre to rush into the streets. "Everything happened very
fast, people ran out of buildings, there are still aftershocks,"
Chrissoula Katsiouli, a staffer at the mayor's office in the
local town of Elassona told AFP. The fire department said that
according to the first reports, a local home and a school had
been damaged. Police also sealed off a bridge cracked by the
quake. "Fortunately, the teachers managed to get the children
out very quickly and there were no victims," the mayor of
Tyrnavos Yiannis Kokkouras told Skai TV. Greek media reported
that a disabled man trapped in his home in the village of
Mesochori had been rescued. TV images showed the side wall of
his house had completely collapsed. The Civil Protection agency
also reported landslides had occurred in the region, and
authorities were assessing further damage. The US Geological
Survey said the earthquake, which could be felt across central
and northern Greece, was magnitude 6.3. But the Institute of
Geodynamics in Athens said earlier the quake had measured at a
magnitude of 6.0. - 'Significant' aftershocks - According to the
Athens observatory, the epicentre of the quake was 21 kilometres
(13 miles) south of the town of Elassona, near Larissa and was
eight kilometres deep. There were at least three aftershocks
following the main tremor -- including one at magnitude 4.0 --
and authorities warned there could be more. Seismologist
Gerassimos Papadopoulos warned of further "significant
aftershocks", speaking on Skai radio. However, experts stress
that quake faults in the area rarely produce tremors larger than
the one clocked on Wednesday. The last major earthquake in the
area was in the 18th century and was magnitude 6.2, Manolis
Skordilis, a seismologist at Thessaloniki's Aristotle
University, told state agency ANA. Greece is located on a number
of fault lines, and is sporadically hit by earthquakes. But the
quakes often happen at sea and do not often kill people or cause
extensive damage. The last fatal earthquake was in October, when
a magnitude 7.0 hit in the Aegean Sea between the Greek island
of Samos and the city of Izmir in western Turkey. The majority
of damage was in Turkey where 114 people were killed and more
than 1,000 injured. In Greece, two teenagers were reported dead
on the island of Samos. (ANSA-AFP).
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