Croatia Declares Mourning as More Quakes Hit Devastated Town

Croatia's Seismological Service on Wednesday at 6.15am, 6.26am and 6.29am recorded three more earthquakes centred not far from the town of Petrinja, some 60 km south of Zagreb - the town which was seriously damaged by powerful quakes on Tuesday that killed at least seven people.

The magnitudes of the latest earthquakes were 4.7, 4.8 and 3.9 according to Richter, which is weaker than Tuesday's 6.2 magnitude quake, which devastated Petrinja and its surroundings.

The government on Wednesday declared a state of mourning on January 2, 2021. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said 120 million kunas (around 1.5 million euros) of emergency aid would be sent to the most affected areas.

Plenkovic said more help would also come from EU solidarity funds, adding that the European Commissioner for Emergency Situations would arrive in the country on Wednesday.

He stressed that all patients from the hospital in Petrinja and most from nearby Sisak were being taken care of and transferred to Zagreb.

A series of serious earthquakes has struck Croatia lately, especially around Petrinja and Sisak.

On Tuesday, after the largest earthquake this year, the Mayor of Petrinja, Darinko Dumbovic, told N1 TV that "half of the town was destroyed". The quakes also caused damage in Zagreb, disrupting telephone connections and electricity supplies.

The impact of the quakes was also felt across the region.

The first series of quakes this year in Croatia on March 22 shook Zagreb, toppling one of the two spires on the capital's cathedral and damaging thousands of buildings. Several dozen people were injured.

Nine months after those quakes, many of those whose homes were damaged still do not know when they will be rebuilt, and face a winter...

Continue reading on: