Thousands of inhabitants are fleeing the Greek island of Santorini in the middle of a wave of seismic activity.
About 6,000 people left the island by ferry from Sunday, according to local media, with an emergency flights that were supposed to leave on Tuesday.
More than 300 earthquakes have been recorded in the last 48 hours near the island – and some experts say that trembling can continue for weeks. The authorities closed the schools all week and warned of a large closed gathering, but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for peace.
Santorini is a popular tourist destination known for its greedy buildings, but most of those who leave are locals, because February is outside the top tourist season.
Several trembling, measured to Magnituda 4.7, was recorded northeast of Santorini early on Tuesday.
Although greater damage has not been recorded so far, emergency measures are taken as a precautionary measure.
Hundreds of people settled in the port in the early hours on Tuesday morning to board a ferry that goes to the mainland.
“Everything is closed. No one is working now. The whole island has emptied,” said the 18-year-old local resident of Reuters’s news agency before boarding the vessel.
In addition to 6,000 people who left the island by ferry from Sunday, about 2500 to 2,700 passengers flew from Santorini in Athens on Monday and Tuesday, according to Aegean Airlines.
The carrier said he added three emergency flight to his schedule, with space for hundreds of passengers, after the request of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and civil protection.
Santorini is a small island with only 15,500 inhabitants. Each year, he welcomes millions of tourists.
Kostas Sakavaras, a tourist guide living in Santorini for 18 years, left the island with his wife and children on Monday.
“We thought it was a better choice to come to the mainland as a precautionary measure,” he told BBC News.
“Nothing fell, or something,” he said, adding that the worst part was a sound. “It’s the most terrible part of it,” said Mr. Sakavaras, who plans to return home after the schools reopened.
Schools should stay closed on the island until Friday. Authorities also warned people to avoid certain areas of the island and empty their pools.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis said on Monday that Greece was working to manage a “very intense geological phenomenon”.
Seismologists believe that the recent trembling is smaller, but preventive measures were established in case of a greater earthquake.
Emergency service services have warned residents to leave the areas of Ammoudi, Armenia and the Old Port of Fira for landslides.
The South Aegei regional fire department was set up on a general warning team and rescue teams, and the crews stood on large yellow medical tents on the island.
Santorini is on what is known as the Hellenic volcanic arch – the island chain created by volcanoes – but the last major eruption was in the 1950s.
Greek authorities have announced that recent trembling is related to the movements of tectonic plates instead of volcanic activities.
