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December 29, 2020
Petrinja is a pile of rubble.
The "destroyed city" is the headline of local media, overwhelmed in the late morning of today by an earthquake "four times more energetic than Amatrice", explains Ingv.
Among the collapsed buildings, also the local hospital and a kindergarten.
At 12.19 the earth shook with a violence that.
Magnitude 6.4 at a depth of 10 km.
Petrinja is located in central Croatia, in the historic Banovina region near Sisak.
It counts 13,801 inhabitants, 23,413 if we consider the metropolitan area.
It is about 50 kilometers from the capital, Zagreb.
"There had been tremors yesterday in Croatia - the president of Ingv, Carlo Doglioni reminded Rainews24 - so presumably many people were not at home, but this type of tremor can cause enormous damage".
The shock was felt in Austria and almost all of Italy, from Friuli to Lombardy, from Tuscany to Abruzzo and Campania.
"The structure that generated this earthquake is independent from those in Italy, so there is no correlation - explains Doglioni -. But the shock was clearly felt in a large part of the country, especially in the North East and on the Adriatic coast. ".
The only confirmed victim so far is a 12-year-old girl who died under the rubble in Petrinja.
Local media reports.
The town mayor, Darinko Dumbovic, spoke of total destruction.
"The situation is like Hiroshima," he said.
Three hundred soldiers are on their way to the town to provide assistance to the population.
The arrival of Prime Minister Zndrej Plenkovic is also expected.
Massive material damage also in Sisak, not far from Petrinja, where numerous injuries are reported.
Right here, in Sisak, at 13.34 the strongest of the minor tremors (magnitude 4.5), which subsequently shook central Croatia.
Zagreb mayor, Milan Bandic, asked his fellow citizens not to use cars to keep the streets clear for emergency services so that they can "clean up as soon as possible".
Furthermore, in Zagreb, local media report, traffic is haywire because there is no electricity and traffic lights are not working.
The telephone lines are cut and the Internet is not working.
Nuclear power plant closed in Slovenia
In Slovenia the Krsko nuclear power plant was closed as a precaution.
This is a standard precautionary procedure that is activated in the event of a major earthquake, the company told local media.
Built in 1983, the 700 megawatt plant is the only one in Slovenia and is shared with Croatia.
EU ready to provide aid
Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic spoke on the phone with the president of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who promised urgent aid from the Union.
"We are ready to provide help, I have asked Commissioner Janez Lenarcik to go to Croatia as soon as the situation allows," said von der Leyen, as reported by local media.
Situacija u Petrinji.
pic.twitter.com/EK63mcVofC
- Hrvatski Crveni križ (@crvenikriz_hr) December 29, 2020