Cephalonia hit by 362 aftershocks

Aftershocks continued on Thursday on the Ionian island of Cephalonia, following Sunday’s 5.9-Richter earthquake, but seismologists were reassuring, saying that the tremors were dwindling and that a larger, more destructive quake was unlikely.

A total of 362 aftershocks had rattled the island by late last night, Thanassis Ganas, head of research at the Institute of Geodynamics, told Kathimerini. He said the original quake jolted adjacent fault lines, causing a large number of aftershocks but that there was no indication of a larger looming tremor.

Checks by state engineers have suggested that around half of some 1,000 buildings damaged by the quake are temporarily unsafe for use.