An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 rocked Albania on Thursday, the third quake that has occurred in the past three days. Rescue teams desperately
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 rocked Albania on Thursday, the third quake that has occurred in the past three days.
Rescue teams desperately sought survivors under rubble in Albania’s western town of Durres on Thursday hoping to pull out toddler twins alive, two days after a 6.4 magnitude quake killed at least 40 people.
The quake on Tuesday, centred 30 km (19 miles) west of the capital Tirana, was felt across the Balkans and in the southern Italian region of Puglia across the Adriatic Sea.
Some 45 people were pulled alive from under the rubble. A handful of the 650 injured are in a serious condition.
The government has declared a state of emergency for 30 days in the areas of Durres and Thumane, the worst affected, and promised it would build new houses by the end of next year for those who lost them.
The costs of the damage and reconstruction have yet to be determined. Two donor conferences have been mentioned and a wave of solidarity has spread in the Albanian Diaspora.
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit Albania on Wednesday, the second quake in only two days.
The tremor’s epicenter was under the Adriatic Sea, said Albania’s Institute for Earth Sciences, Energy, Water, and the Environment.