Holidaying Brits experienced a jolt as a frightening 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off Crete’s shore, with its tremors resonating through Turkey, Libya, and Israel.
Reeling from the quake, people on the Greek islands of Crete and Santorini are now bracing for a possible tsunami follow-up.
People visiting have been advised to “move away from the coast” following a tsunami warning from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre. However, Greek officials assure that there is no threat to life.
The government has issued an alert and ordered people to be vigilant as they continue to assess the scale of the earthquake.
British holidaymakers on the Greek islands took to social media to share their ordeals.
One said on TikTok: “That was very scary. I was scared last time but this time I’m terrified.
“That’s been two earthquakes in the past week and I just want to get home safely. I just want to leave.”
Another told her followers: “Excuse the state of me. I’ve just been woken up by a f***ing earthquake.”
She captioned the video: “Scariest moment of my life.”
Another person commented to say: “We felt it – the whole room was shaking. So scary!”
Victoria, staying in Hersonissos on Crete, said her boyfriend were woken up this morning to “our beds shaking a lot”.
She told MailOnline that part of the balcony door’s metal frame came off, and the experience was “very scary”.
A local told state television ERT: “Everything shook like mad, never felt one that strong,’
This first powerful tremor hit 79km out from the city of Heraklion at 6:19am (3:19am UK time) this morning.
It came from a depth of 68km, the United States Geological Survey added.
The national fire brigade was on high alert this morning for any casualties, major damage or rescue operations.
Locals have reported damage to roads and old buildings across Crete, and there were chaotic scenes in shops with products thrown from the shelves.
No injuries have been reported as yet, but residents did rush out of their homes as a precaution when the first tremor was felt, reports ERT.
Five more aftershocks have been reported since, according to Creta One, with the strongest registering at 3.5-magnitude.
Director of the Geodynamic Institute of Athens, Vasilis Karastathis, said it may take up to a few days to fully evaluate the tremors.
But he said any major damage isn’t expected to occur with the chance of a tsunami remaining relatively low.
The morning’s drama comes just over a week after terrified Brits were told to immediately evacuate coastal regions of Greece amid tsunami fears.
A 6.3-magnitude quake struck both Crete and Rhodes as it quickly sparked panic among holidaymakers and locals.
The quake registered a depth of 62.5 kilometres and struck as many people slept, according to the Geodynamic Institute of Athens.
Its epicentre was the tiny Aegean island of Kasos.
Brit holidaymaker Nigel Cummings, who was on holiday in Crete, said: “We didn’t just shake, the whole earth seemed to wobble like jelly.
“The text message people got warning about a tsunami frightened a lot of us.”
More than 624,000 people reside in Crete, with around a third of the island’s population living in the capital, Heraklion.
The region lies in one of the most seismically active zones in Europe, where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
It’s generally thought that any earthquake over 6.0 can cause damage if it hits a populated area.
Roughly 100 earthquakes with a magnitude between 6.1 and 6.9 are recorded each year worldwide, according to Michigan Tech University.
