A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hits Croatia; 7 reported deaths

A strong earthquake in Croatia destroyed buildings and killed at least seven people on Tuesday [local time] southwest of the capital, displacing dozens of area residents or making them afraid to sleep inside while emergency crews searched for those still missing at dusk.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck 46 kilometers southeast of Zagreb just before 12:20 p.m. local time. It caused widespread damage in the hardest hit city of Petrinja. The same area was hit by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake on Monday.

Authorities said a 12-year-old girl died in Petrinja, a city of about 25,000 people. Six other people died in nearly destroyed towns near the city, according to state television HRT. At least 26 people were hospitalized, six seriously injured, authorities said, adding that many more people remained missing.

In Petrinja, screams could be heard from under the destroyed houses. A woman was found alive about four hours after the earthquake. Emergency teams used rescue dogs to search for survivors, while family members watched desperately.

“My city has been completely destroyed. We have dead children,” Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbovic said in a statement released by HRT. “This is like Hiroshima: half the city no longer exists.”

Marica Pavlovic, a resident, said the earthquake felt “worse than a war.”

“It was horrible, a shock, you don’t know what to do, run away or hide somewhere,” he told the Associated Press.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and other government ministers arrived in Petrinja after the earthquake.

“Most of downtown Petrinja is in a red zone, which means that most of the buildings cannot be used,” Plenkovic said.

He said the army has 500 places ready in barracks to house people, while others will stay in nearby hotels and other places.

“No one should stay outside in the cold tonight,” the prime minister said.

Later, officials toured a damaged hospital in the nearby town of Sisak, which was also badly affected by the earthquake.

Plenkovic said that patients from the hospital will be evacuated by army helicopters and ambulances. Health officials said a baby was born in a tent in front of the hospital after the earthquake.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Twitter that she spoke with Plenkovic and instructed an envoy to travel to Croatia as soon as possible.

As a Mediterranean country, Croatia is prone to earthquakes, but not large ones. The last strong earthquake occurred in the 1990s when the picturesque village of Ston on the Adriatic coast was destroyed.

Regional television channel N1 reported from Petrinja that a collapsed building had fallen onto a car. The footage showed firefighters trying to remove debris. A man and a small boy were eventually rescued from the car and taken to an ambulance.

Fallen bricks and dust covered the streets as emergency crews used rescue dogs as they searched the rubble for survivors. A woman was found alive about four hours after the earthquake, rescuers said.

The Croatian army was deployed to Petrinja to help with the rescue operation.

Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk described the earthquake as “extremely strong”, much stronger than another that hit Zagreb and nearby areas in the spring. He warned people to stay away from potentially unstable old buildings and move to newer areas of the city due to aftershocks.

In the capital, people ran into the streets in fear.

The earthquake was felt throughout the country and in neighboring Serbia, Bosnia and Slovenia. It was felt as far away as Graz in southern Austria, the Austrian Press Agency reported.

Slovenian authorities said the Krsko nuclear power plant was temporarily closed after the earthquake. The power plant is jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia and is located near their border.

– AP