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A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook Croatia on Tuesday (European authorities say the magnitude is 6.2), reported the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
(In other news: Medium intensity earthquake was registered in southern Chile)
The Efe agency assures that the earthquake has left several dead (including a girl) and injured. “Petrinja is in ruins. There are dead and wounded, there are missing. There is no house that has not been damaged. Ambulances cannot reach all places. It is chaos,” local mayor Darinko Dumbovic told Radio Croatia. ,.
The earthquake, which took place at a depth of 10 km and was of magnitude 6.2 according to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center, was also felt strongly about 50 km from the epicenter, in the capital Zagreb, where scared people took to the streets, confirmed an AFP journalist.
Images of the city, where some 20,000 people live, showed roofs and streets collapsing with bricks and rubbles. Rescuers and the military were deployed to search for possible residents trapped in the rubble of damaged buildings.
“I’m scared, I can’t contact anyone at home because the phone lines are dead”a woman from Petrinja told N1. The quake took place the day after another smaller earthquake in Petrinja that damaged buildings.
A 5.3 earthquake shook the Croatian capital in March, causing significant material damage. The Balkans are an area of strong seismic activity and earthquakes are frequent.
Closed nuclear power plant in Slovenia
The Slovenian nuclear plant in Krsko was closed in a preventive manner as a result of the strong earthquake, a spokeswoman for the nuclear power plant said Tuesday. “I can confirm the preventive closure ” plant, spokeswoman Ida Novak Jerele told AFP, without giving further details.
According to the STA press agency, it is a “normal procedure in case of strong earthquakes”. In addition to Slovenia, the earthquake was felt in several countries in the region, especially in Hungary and Austria, witnesses confirmed to the media.
Built in Yugoslav times and in operation since 1983, Krsko’s Westinghouse-type reactor, with a power of 700 megawatts, is the only one in Slovenia that shares the nuclear site with Croatia. Initially, it was expected to cease its activity in 2023, after 40 years of operation.
However, Ljubljana and Zagreb decided in 2015 to extend their activity for another twenty years, despite protests from several NGOs. Lhe plant covers around 20% of Slovenia’s electricity demand and 15% of Croatia’s.
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AFP
