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Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbovic says the city is completely destroyed. Hundreds of buildings have collapsed.
– This is like Hiroshima, half the city no longer exists, says the mayor.
– People are panicking. They look for friends and family.
The mayor says now it’s about saving lives.
– We get people out of cars, we don’t know how many are affected. He’s dead, he’s injured, says Dumbovic.
Red Cross: – Very serious
The Red Cross says that the situation in Croatia is very serious. The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3. Extensive property damage is reported. Power in much of Croatia is gone.
Across Zagreb, residents are keen to avoid falling under collapsed buildings.
Photo: Filip Horvat / AP
The city of Petrinja, with 25,000 inhabitants, is said to be the hardest hit. Images of a building collapsing onto a car are shown in local media. The videos show firefighters trying to dig him up.
– We managed to get a child who was in the car when everything collapsed. The owner is inside the car, but he doesn’t make any sound, says a young man on television channel N1, according to Index.
– It’s a difficult situation now. I heard about the collapse of a kindergarten, but there were no children there. We do not know if someone has died, says another man to the channel.
Croatian police are urging people to stay outdoors to prevent houses from collapsing.
According to the country’s seismological institute, the earthquake was followed by at least 20 aftershocks. The department does not rule out that more may come.
The army, police, civil defense and firefighters are now in full swing with rescue efforts.
Norwegian Red Cross Secretary General Bernt Apeland says the pandemic may hamper relief work.
– Petrinja Hospital was destroyed by the earthquake. The other hospitals in the area are already congested because of. corona pandemic, Apeland says.
A cruel year
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic have joined Petrinja.
– This is horrible. It has been a cruel year and this hurts more. This city will be rebuilt, but no one will be able to compensate for the emotional damage of the people. The center looks scary. People are afraid, says the president.
Affected several countries
The earthquake affected 46 kilometers southeast of Zagreb, according to the European Seismological Center. The same area was hit by a 5.2 earthquake on Monday.
Collapsed house in Petrinja, Croatia.
Photo: AP
The earthquake was felt throughout the country and also in neighboring Serbia and Bosnia. Reports of the earthquake come from Vukovar in the extreme northeast to Split in the south. It should have lasted 30 seconds and was followed by a minor aftershock.
Also in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, 150 km away, the parliament building was shaken violently and politicians had to seek refuge, shows a video of the parliament’s television broadcasts.
Slovenia has closed the only nuclear power plant in the country for security reasons. A spokesperson for the facility tells AFP that this is a precautionary measure.
Fewer Norwegians than usual
The Norwegian embassy in Zagreb says they are working to get an overview of both Norwegians and embassy employees.
– We are still working to map the extent of Norwegians who are present in the country. Due to the epidemic, there are probably fewer Norwegians here. That is what the councilor of the embassy Homma Latif says.
So far, no Norwegian has contacted the embassy.
Latif was at the embassy with several employees when the earthquake struck.
– The building shook violently during the earthquake.
She says Zagreb is affected too, but not to the same extent as other cities.
In Zagreb, the streets are littered with collapsed materials. The 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Croatia.
Photo: Antonio Bronic / Reuters
EU aid
EU President Charles Michel gives his support to the country and promises EU aid.
– Our thoughts are with the injured and rescue teams, Michel writes on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.
The President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, signs Twitter who has had talks with Prime Minister Plenkovic.
He writes that he has asked Janez Lenarčič to be ready to travel to Croatia as soon as possible. He is the European Commissioner responsible for crisis management.
In March, the capital Zagreb was hit by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that, among other things, destroyed the city’s old cathedral. The earthquake that struck the city of Petrinja is the strongest the country has experienced in 140 years.
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