A large earthquake struck north of the Croatian capital Zagreb on Sunday, GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences said, damaging buildings, sending many people into the streets, burying vehicles in rubble and causing several fires.
The Institute for Urgent Medicine, an emergency hospital, said one child had been admitted with head injuries from a falling roof and the Zagreb Fire Department said the firefighting and rescue operations were ongoing at several locations.
GFZ said the quake of magnitude 5.3 struck at a depth of 10 kilometres and lasted over 10 seconds. It downgraded the magnitude of the quake, which could be also felt across the Western Balkans, from an initial reading of 6.0.
Croatia’s Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic appealed via his Twitter account to people in the streets to keep social distance from each other as the country struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus. So far, Croatia has reported 206 cases of the virus and one death.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 5.4, while the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) also reported 5.3 magnitude, followed by another 5.1 magnitude earthquake.
