12-Year-Old Girl Dead After Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Hits Croatia

Photo: DENIS LOVROVIC/AFP via Getty

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Croatia has five dead, several injured and a country in disarray.

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“My town has been completely destroyed. We have dead children,” Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbović told the station in a statement, per the AP. “This is like Hiroshima – half of the city no longer exists.”

DENIS LOVROVIC/AFP via Getty

In a press conference, Dumbović also pleaded for emergency aid,CNNreported. “We need firefighters, we don’t know what lies below the surface. A roof fell on a car, we need help,” he said.

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“The biggest part of central Petrinja is in a red zone, which means that most of the buildings are not usable,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told the AP. “No one must stay out in the cold tonight.”

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According to theUnited States Geological Survey,a 6.3 magnitude earthquake is considered to be “strong.”

Croatia is prone to earthquakes because of its Mediterranean location, as the region resides over a complex tectonic setting. However, the last strong quake to hit the country was in the 1990s when the Adriatic town of Ston was struck with a 6.0 magnitude earthquake,according to The Guardian.

Croatian seismologist Kresimir Kuk told the AP that the country now needs to brace itself for aftershocks, and warned residents to stay out of old buildings.

source: people.com