U.S. According to the Geological Survey, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake shook central Croatia on Tuesday, with local rescue teams reporting extensive damage near the center of the city of Petrinja and the surrounding area.
The extent of the casualties could not be ascertained. The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued. The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued.
“The city was destroyed and at least one person was killed, a 12-year-old girl whose body he said was walking down the street,” Derinko Dambovich, mayor of Petrinja, told regional broadcaster N1.
“This is a disaster,” he said. “My city is completely destroyed.”
“We need firefighters, we don’t know what’s under the surface, a roof has fallen on a car, we need help,” he said in an emotional telephone interview from a scene aired on Croatian state television.
“Mothers cry for their children,” he said.
Images of the scenes on social media and local television stations showed streets strewn with roads, roofed buildings and rescuers rushing through the streets. In a scene captured by a local television crew, a man and a child were pulled from a car crushed under debris and taken to hospital.
The mayor told local reporters he did not know the condition of the two men.
“I’ve also heard that kindergarten has collapsed.” “But fortunately there were no children” in the building at the time.
Petrinja is about 30 miles southeast of the Zagreb capital, where buildings collapsed and debris from broken windows and damaged structures filled the streets.
The Red Cross in Croatia said it was a “very serious” situation.
The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued. The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued.
The visit came just hours after Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Joran Milanovic visited the center of Petrinja for the first quake damage survey.
While it did not cause any damage from the first quake, Mayor Dumbovich said many buildings were damaged when the second quake struck.
He said there had been many small earthquakes in recent days and many residents were afraid to spend the night in their homes.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said he was ready to travel to Croatia to provide assistance to European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lanarsic.
The region is prone to earthquakes, and experts warn that the Balkan nations of southeastern Europe have failed to meet the risks of aging housing.
While many towns and villages trace their roots hundreds of years later, during the transition from communism to capitalism in the 1990s, the building boomed, with constructions built regardless of safety standards.
Experts say the result is that millions of people live in homes that are prone to large earthquakes.
In Croatia, traces of the earthquake are still visible in places like Dubrovnik, where about a third of the city was leveled in 1667 and more than 5,000,000 people died.
Alyssa Dogramadzieva and J. Orovic contributed to the reporting.
