Magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes Mediterranean, felt in Egypt

Ahram Online , Tuesday 19 Oct 2021

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday morning, with many residents in Egypt and other countries reporting having felt it. The earthquake struck 219 km south of the Greek island of Rhodes, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.

File Photo: A view of the River Nile and buildings in Cairo. AFP

Countries that felt tremors included Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Israel, and Greece.

Many residents of Cairo and Alexandria in northern Egypt, and as far south as Assiut in Upper Egypt, say they felt the earthquake, according to Reuters.

The national seismic stations in Egypt recorded the earthquake at 7:32am local time, said Gad Al-Qadi, the head of Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics.

No casualties or properties losses have been confirmed so far, Al-Qadi said.

Last Tuesday, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Greece’s Crete Island at 11:25am, 460 kilometres away from the Egyptian coastal city of Marsa Matrouh.

The tremor was felt in Egypt and it coincided with the anniversary of a destructive earthquake that hit Egypt on the same day in 1992.