(Newswire.net — December 29, 2020) —
A powerful earthquake hit Croatia on Tuesday, causing devastation and so far one death has been reported. The earthquake hit at 12:20 local time, was measured at a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale and could be felt in many European countries by millions of people. The epicenter of the quake was in the city Petrinja, located in central Croatia, with a population of around 25,000.
USGS, the United States Geological Survey agency that the quake could be felt in Bosnia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and many other neighboring countries. The nuclear plant in Krshko, Slovenia halted its operation due to the earthquake.
There was another earthquake in the neighboring town of Sisak just a day before. The second quake leveled buildings and hospitals and reports state that in Sisak there are 20 injured and two people are in critical condition. “Everything that yesterday’s earthquake started today’s one finished,” said one local, looking at the devastation.
Darinko Dumbovic, the Mayor of Petrinja, said that a 12 year old girl was killed and that the number of injured or missing people keeps rising and said “We don’t know what’s happening. All of a sudden the city collapses, and in one second the city is no more.”
Almost all of the houses in the center of Petrinja have been destroyed. Citizens ran to the city park in fear of a potential aftershock, which hit an hour later at a magnitude of 4.5. Emergency services are working to help survivors who are trapped under rubble.
Both earthquakes were located less than 30 miles from Zagreb the capital of Croatia where there was also significant property damage. There was an electricity outage and phone lines were down causing frightened citizens to flee the city which led to motorways heading out of the city to stall. Police called for citizens to remain in open areas, since there have been numerous reports of injuries and property damage.