Thousands flee popular tourist hotspot

Thousands of people have fled a popular tourist hotspot with increased ferry and flight services to take them to the mainland.

The popular Greek island of Santorini has been rocked by a series of small quakes prompting thousands of people to flee the hotspot.

The tourist destination – one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea – saw around 6,000 people leaving the island by land and sea with additional ferry and emergency flights scheduled to leave on Tuesday.

The island is home to about 15,000 residents and welcomes millions of tourists each year. It is known for its spectacular cliffside views and dormant volcano.

People embark a ferry as they leave in the wake of recurring earthquakes, on the Greek Island of Santorini, on February 4. Picture: STR / AFP

But in the past 48 hours alone it has experienced more than 300 earthquakes with some 750 earthquakes shaking the island since last week.

One quake recorded a magnitude of 4.9 that hit early Tuesday and hours later it was followed by a 5.0-magnitude tremor.

Fresh overnight tremors shook the country’s top tourist island. Picture: STR / AFP

An empty swimming pool is seen in a group of clifftop buildings in the town of Oia. Picture: AP/Petros Giannakouris

Over the weekend, Greece’s civil protection ordered schools to close down while tents sprang up to house rescue teams sent to the island in response. So far, there have been no reports of injuries or damage.

Images show hundreds of people queuing at main ports to embark on ferries following the wake of recurring earthquakes.

Another image shows a group of empty clifftop buildings in the town of Oia.

Around 6,000 people have left Santorini over the past few days.

Experts say the region has not experienced seismic activity on this scale since records began in 1964.

“This is the first time this is happening, we have not seen it before,” Athanassios Ganas, research director at the national observatory’s institute of geodynamics, told state TV ERT.

He noted that the area had been hit with over 40 earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 4.0 in the past 72 hours.

There has been an increase in ferry and flight services. Picture: STR/AFP

Passengers board a ferry bound for the Greek mainland. Picture: AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris

Santorini lies atop a volcano which last erupted in 1950 — but an experts’ committee on Monday said the current phenomenon was “not linked to volcanic activity”.

According to the Greek coastguard, over 5,700 people have left the island by ferry since Sunday.

Aegean Airlines said it had flown nearly 1,300 people out of Santorini on Monday, with another eight flights able to carry 1,400 passengers scheduled for Tuesday.

The last major eruption was in the 1950s. Picture: AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris

Santorini lies atop a volcano which last erupted in 1950 — but an experts’ committee on Monday said the current phenomenon was “not linked to volcanic activity”.

Some tourists on the island say they are not overly concerned.

“I’m not so worried about the earthquake or volcano because I came from Tokyo,” Wataru Saito, a 43-year-old economist who spent a day on the island, told AFP.

He noted that the tremor levels in Santorini are negligible compared to the earthquakes experienced in Japan.

Roger Beauchamp from Arizona called the tremors “tiny”.

“We’ve been feeling them all day, little light ones. So we’re not afraid of them,” he told AFP.

The head of Greece’s earthquake planning and protection authority, Efthymios Lekkas, has said that a major earthquake of 6.0 magnitude was unlikely.

“The residents of Santorini should feel safe. There must not be panic,” he told Mega TV on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday also appealed for calm, while admitting that the phenomenon is “very intense”.

– with AFP