People flee Santorini as earthquake fears grow | Greece

Earthquake fears have prompted people to flee Santorini, as Greece’s most popular island destination continues to be hit by what scientists described as a “barrage” of tremors.

With authorities on heightened alert amid mounting concerns of an impending natural disaster, residents, tourists and workers are scrambling to leave the island on ferries and planes.

By midday on Monday, Aegean airlines, the national carrier, had announced it was doubling the number of flights from Athens to Santorini for the next two days, as travel agents said the new flights were sold out “within seconds”.

“We’re monitoring the situation very closely and, following discussions with the ministry of civil protection, will act accordingly,” an airline spokesperson told the Guardian. Ferry companies said they would also put on extra services as the uptake for passenger tickets on boats soared.

More than 200 undersea tremors shook the island over the weekend – most in waters between Santorini and Amorgos, the Cyclades’ easternmost isle – with scores of fresh overnight earthquakes prompting people to sleep outside or in their cars.

“I cried all night because I was very afraid and didn’t know what to do,” a Mexican tourist on a two-day visit to Santorini was quoted as telling the Greek daily Protothema. “We felt that the ground wasn’t at all stable … We were all saying we should stay calm but how can you be calm when the ground is shaking again and again?”

On Monday, an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale, the most powerful yet, was registered at 2.17 PM local time. Land and rockslides were also recorded.

“All scenarios are open,” Dr Gerassimos Papadopoulos, a prominent seismologist, wrote in an online post. “The number of tremors has increased, magnitudes have risen, and epicentres have shifted north-east … The risk level has escalated.”

Later in the day, as speculation of a volcanic eruption also grew, he emphasised that the earthquakes were “tectonic, not volcanic”.

By order of Greece’s civil protection ministry, schools in Santorini and the surrounding islands of Ios, Anafi and Amorgos are to remain shut until Friday, while people were advised as a precautionary measure to avoid derelict buildings and gathering in large numbers in enclosed spaces.

Warnings were also issued to avoid the shoreline and certain ports in case a quake triggered a tsunami. “It appears a seismic fault line has been activated and could cause an earthquake above six [on the Richter scale],” another seismologist, Prof Manolis Skordylis, said on public radio. “We haven’t had the main earthquake yet.”

Emergency medical crews continued to arrive on the island on Monday joining special forces, rescue teams and drone handlers who had already been dispatched. Officials have not ruled out the army being sent in. In the event of a tsunami inhabitants have been told to head to elevated areas inland, where rescue workers have established a staging area, pitching tents in a basketball court close to the island’s main hospital.

“We are dealing with a very intense geological phenomenon,” the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told reporters in Brussels where he was attending an informal EU leaders’ meeting. “I ask that islanders remain calm and listen to the guidance of the civil protection ministry.”

Greece sits on multiple fault lines and is often rattled by earthquakes. Research has shown the crust under the seas around Santorini to be a highly active seismic zone.

Memories are still vivid of the powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Amorgos and Santorini in 1956, triggering a tsunami that resulted in the deaths of 53 people, mass injuries and unprecedented damage.

In the intervening years the crescent-shaped island of white chalk houses has become one of Europe’s top destinations, attracting an estimated 3.5 million tourists last year.