Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

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Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Thousands have fled the Greek island of Santorini after hundreds of earthquakes shook the Aegean Sea in recent days.

Schools across a number of Greek islands have been shut as a result of the tectonic activity, but a handful of tourists have enjoyed having the views to themselves.

Images captured an exodus of residents and seasonal workers leaving the Cycladic Islands amid the earthquakes.

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Families carrying young children, tourists dragging their suitcases, and car parks full of vehicles belonging to those who had left on a ferry were all common sights.

In Santorini’s main town of Fira, the narrow, whitewashed streets were deserted – a rare sight even in the off-season – apart from small pockets of tour groups.

Hundreds of tremors have shaken the islands, some as strong as magnitude 5, since Friday.

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Ferry and commercial flight operators have added additional services to accommodate the surge of people leaving.

The quakes have caused cracks in some older buildings but no injuries have so far been reported.

Schools on 13 islands were shut on Tuesday – up four from the previous day.

Santorini previously cancelled public events, restricted travel and banned construction work in certain areas.

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Efthimios Lekkas, head of the state-run Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, said the epicentre of the earthquakes was in the Aegean Sea and moving north away from Santorini.

He added there was no connection to the area’s dormant volcanoes.

“This may last several days or several weeks. We are not able to predict the evolution of the sequence in time,” Mr Lekkas told state-run television.

Retired police officer and ship worker Panagiotis Hatzigeorgiou, who has lived in Santorini for more than 30 years, said he turned down offers to stay with relatives in Athens.

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

“Older residents are used to the earthquakes… but it’s different this time. It’s not the same to have earthquakes every two to three minutes. The main thing is not to worry,” he said.

He added: “Now we can listen to music alone and have coffee by ourselves.”

But tour guide Kostas Sakavaras said he and his family had fled to Athens “as a precaution”.

“It’s nerve-wracking to have every few minutes some tremor happening, even though it’s not a very devastating one,” he told Sky News.

He said he had a “feeling increasingly more people are leaving the island”.

In Athens, government officials were holding daily planning and assessment meetings with briefings from island officials.

Thousands flee Santorini after spike in earthquakes but few brave tourists remain

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Despite the quakes, not everyone was put off visiting the island.

Joseph Liu, from Guangzhou in southern China, said he had spent years wanting to visit Santorini after seeing it in a documentary.

He added he had been warned about the earthquakes so was not surprised by them, saying: “This place is amazing, really beautiful.”

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