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Tag: evacuated

  • Greek island Santorini evacuated after earthquakes shake tourist destination

    Greek island Santorini evacuated after earthquakes shake tourist destination

    Hundreds of earthquakes that have rattled the Greek islands since last week have prompted the evacuation of thousands from the tourist hotspot Santorini.

    Santorini Mayor Nikos Zorzos told The Associated Press that the tremors are a “seismic swarm” and could continue for weeks before eventually diminishing.

    “This phenomenon may play out with small quakes or a single, slightly stronger one, followed by gradual subsidence,” Zorzos said, adding he was cautiously optimistic after speaking to seismologists.

    More than 200 undersea earthquakes up to magnitude 5 have been recorded in the volcanic region since Friday.

    EMERGENCY CREWS DEPLOYED ON SANTORINI AS EARTHQUAKE SWARM WORRIES GREEK EXPERTS

    Tourists walk on the narrow streets of Fira after an earthquake swarm on the island of Santorini, southern Greece, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

    Roughly 9,000 people have left Santorini since Sunday, with more emergency flights and ferries adding services to accommodate departures, the BBC reported.

    People wait for ferry at port of Piraeus

    People wait for the arrival of a regularly scheduled ferry to Athens’ port of Piraeus, after a spike in seismic activity raised concerns about a potentially powerful earthquake in Santorini, southern Greece, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

    Santorini has canceled public events, restricted travel to the island and banned construction work in certain areas. The quakes have caused cracks in some older buildings, but no injuries have been reported. The island has a population of approximately 15,500 residents.

    EARTHQUAKE OFF COAST OF MAINE SHAKES NORTHEAST

    caldera at Firostefani

    A woman from China looks on from a caldera at Firostefani while authorities are taking emergency measures in response to intense seismic activity on the popular Aegean Sea holiday island of Santorini, southern Greece, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.  (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

    Efthimios Lekkas, head of the state-run Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, said the epicenter of the earthquakes in the Aegean was moving northward away from Santorini, and emphasized there was no connection to the area’s dormant volcanoes.

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

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Passenger plane catches fire at South Korean airport. All 176 people on board are evacuated

    Passenger plane catches fire at South Korean airport. All 176 people on board are evacuated

    A passenger plane caught fire before takeoff at an airport in South Korea late Tuesday, but all 176 people on board were safely evacuated, authorities said.

    The Airbus plane operated by South Korean airline Air Busan was preparing to leave for Hong Kong when its rear parts caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the southeast, the Transport Ministry said in a statement.

    AIRLINER’S FINAL 4 MINUTES OF RECORDINGS ARE MISSING AFTER CRASH THAT KILLED 179: INVESTIGATORS

    The plane’s 169 passengers, six crewmembers and one engineer were evacuated using an escape slide, the ministry said.

    The National Fire Agency said in a release that three people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation. The fire agency said the fire was completely put out at 11:31 p.m., about one hour after it deployed firefighters and fire trucks at the scene.

    Mayor of Busan Park Heong-joon and other officials visit the site where an Air Busan airplane caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.  (Son Hyung-joo/Yonhap via AP)

    The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known. The Transport Ministry said the plane is an A321 model.

    Tuesday’s incident came a month after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history.

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    The Boeing 737-800 skidded off the airport’s runaway on Dec. 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames. The flight was returning from Bangkok and all of the victims were South Koreans except for two Thai nationals.

    The first report on the crash released Monday said authorities have confirmed traces of bird strikes in the plane’s engines, though officials haven’t determined the cause of the accident.