Five Dead As Strong Quake Strikes Central Croatia

A powerful earthquake killed at least five people as it tore down buildings in central Croatia on Tuesday, leaving a town near the epicentre without electricity as rescuers combed toppled roofs and rubble in the dark

Petrinja, Croatia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Dec, 2020 ) :A powerful earthquake killed at least five people as it tore down buildings in central Croatia on Tuesday, leaving a town near the epicentre without electricity as rescuers combed toppled roofs and rubble in the dark.

The tremors were felt as far afield as Vienna while the damage was concentrated in and around Petrinja, a town some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Croatia's capital Zagreb.

At least five people died, including a young girl in Petrinja and four in the nearby town of Glina, officials told local media, without providing more details.

As rescue teams shovelled away bricks and other debris, some elderly residents gathered in a park in downtown Petrinja, wrapped in blankets and afraid to return home.

"All the tiles in the bathroom are broken, all the dishes fell out", Marica Pavlovic, a 72-year-old retired meat factory worker, told AFP of the damage to her home.

"Even if we wanted to, we can't go back in, there is no electricity.

" Earlier in the day Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said containers would be brought in to house those whose homes remained risky, while military barracks could also take in residents.

"It is not safe to be here, that's clear as day now," Plenkovic said as he took stock of the wreckage in Petrinja, which is home to some 20,000 people.

While officials were tallying the scale of the destruction, Petrinja's mayor Darinko Dumbovic said a -- luckily empty -- kindergarten was among the buildings that collapsed from the force of the quake.

The local hospital was also left without heating and electricity, where mobile phones were being used for light, according to images from regional broadcaster N1.

"The city is actually a huge ruin. We are saving people, we are saving lives. We have dead people, we have missing people, injured people...it is a catastrophe," Dumbovic told national radio earlier in the day.