Strong quake in Thessaly
Much of northern Greece was shaken yesterday morning by a strong earthquake in the vicinity of Larissa that damaged dozens of buildings but caused no injuries. The quake, which registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale and occurred just after 10 a.m., had its epicenter 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Athens near the village of Gonnoi, between Litochoro under Mt Olympus and Elassona. «We heard a loud rumbling and then the earth started to shake,» Litochoro Mayor Giorgos Papathanassiou told Kathimerini. «People were frightened and ran out of their homes. We did not get such a shaking during even the big Thessaloniki earthquake of 1978.» The quake was felt throughout Thessaly, central and western Macedonia, Thessaloniki and the Sporades Islands. An estimated 50 buildings in Gonnoi sustained cracks or other damage. According to Thessaloniki University geophysics professor Vassilis Papazachos, Gonnoi lies on one of a series of small faults between Trikala and Mt Olympus.
