Hoax suspected arrested over phone call to Cephalonia warning of quake
Police have arrested a 44-year-old man in southern Greece for allegedly posing as an official from the country’s main seismological institute, following powerful earthquakes on the western island of Cephalonia.
Police on Thursday alleged that the man, pretending to from the Institute of Geodynamics in Athens, called a 62-year-old woman on the island and warned of another major quake. The motive for the call was unclear.
Cephalonia has been rattled by two quakes since Jan. 26 of magnitudes 5.9 and 5.7 as well as scores of aftershocks, damaging around 3,000 homes, according to government estimates. The army set up tents and other temporary shelters this week and the Orthodox Church provided emergency rations as thousands of islanders continue to spend their nights outdoors.
[Associated Press]
