Earthquakes rattled Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini every few minutes through the night and into Wednesday as authorities bolstered their emergency plans in case the temblors are a harbinger of a larger quake to come.
Rescue crews with a sniffer dog and drones have been deployed on Santorini as a precaution since Sunday, while authorities have banned access to several coastal areas and ordered schools to shut for the week.
Local authorities on several other islands in the Cyclades also shut down schools, while public events on Santorini have been banned.
Thousands of residents and visitors have already left Santorini, frightened by the hundreds of earthquakes measuring between magnitude 3 and magnitude 5 that have struck the area since the weekend, with ferry lines and commercial airlines adding flights and ships to their schedules this week to accommodate the increased demand.
However, ferry services were disrupted on Wednesday due to rough weather.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was to attend an emergency meeting at the Civil Protection Ministry in the capital, Athens, to discuss the situation later in the day.
