{"id":231573,"date":"2025-02-04T13:26:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/thousands-flee-santorini-after-spike-in-earthquakes-but-few-brave-tourists-remain\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T13:26:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:26:05","slug":"thousands-flee-santorini-after-spike-in-earthquakes-but-few-brave-tourists-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/thousands-flee-santorini-after-spike-in-earthquakes-but-few-brave-tourists-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thousands<\/div>


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Thousands have fled the Greek island of Santorini after hundreds of earthquakes shook the Aegean Sea in recent days.<\/p>\n

Schools across a number of Greek islands have been shut as a result of the tectonic activity, but a handful of tourists have enjoyed having the views to themselves.<\/p>\n

Images captured an exodus of residents and seasonal workers leaving the Cycladic Islands amid the earthquakes<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n People wait to board a ferry to Piraeus following the increase in seismic activity.
\nPic: Reuters\/Alkis Konstantinidis<\/p>\n

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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \"People\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n People arrive in the port of Piraeus after taking a ferry from Santorini.
\nPic: DPA\/AP
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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\n \"A\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n A man walks between closed tourist shops in Santorini.
\nPic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Families carrying young children, tourists dragging their suitcases, and car parks full of vehicles belonging to those who had left on a ferry were all common sights.<\/p>\n

In Santorini’s main town of Fira, the narrow, whitewashed streets were deserted – a rare sight even in the off-season – apart from small pockets of tour groups.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of tremors have shaken the islands, some as strong as magnitude 5, since Friday.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Pic\"\/\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ferry and commercial flight operators have added additional services to accommodate the surge of people leaving.<\/p>\n

The quakes have caused cracks in some older buildings but no injuries have so far been reported.<\/p>\n

Schools on 13 islands were shut on Tuesday – up four from the previous day.<\/p>\n

Santorini previously cancelled public events, restricted travel and banned construction work in certain areas.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Authorities\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Large crowds heading to catch a ferry off the island.
\nPic: AP
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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\n \"A\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n A man stands near cars as crowds wait to board a ferry to Piraeus, following an increase in seismic activity on Santorini.
\nPic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Efthimios Lekkas, head of the state-run Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, said the epicentre of the earthquakes was in the Aegean Sea and moving north away from Santorini.<\/p>\n

He added there was no connection to the area’s dormant volcanoes.<\/p>\n

“This may last several days or several weeks. We are not able to predict the evolution of the sequence in time,” Mr Lekkas told state-run television.<\/p>\n

Retired police officer and ship worker Panagiotis Hatzigeorgiou, who has lived in Santorini for more than 30 years, said he turned down offers to stay with relatives in Athens.<\/p>\n

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\n \"A\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n A member of an emergency response crew enters a tent on Santorini.
\nPic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\n \"People\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n People arrive in Piraeus near Athens after leaving Santorini.
\nPic: AP
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“Older residents are used to the earthquakes … but it’s different this time. It’s not the same to have earthquakes every two to three minutes. The main thing is not to worry,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added: “Now we can listen to music alone and have coffee by ourselves.”<\/p>\n

In Athens, government officials were holding daily planning and assessment meetings with briefings from island officials.<\/p>\n

Despite the quakes, not everyone was put off visiting the island.<\/p>\n

Joseph Liu, from Guangzhou in southern China, said he had spent years wanting to visit Santorini after seeing it in a documentary.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:<\/strong>
China hits back after new US tariffs<\/a>
Girl, 17, killed by shark while swimming<\/a>
Man sentenced to nearly 500 years<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

He added he had been warned about the earthquakes so was not surprised by them, saying: “This place is amazing, really beautiful,”.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands have fled the Greek island of Santorini after hundreds of earthquakes shook the Aegean Sea in recent days. Schools across a number of Greek islands have been shut as a result of the tectonic activity, but a handful of tourists have enjoyed having the views to themselves. Images captured an exodus of residents and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/02\/768x432\/skynews-greece-santorini_6819196.jpg?20250204093012","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9293,14880,11927,3786,180272,11126,57,5773],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231575,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231573\/revisions\/231575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}