A strong earthquake in central Croatia has killed at least six people, injured many and caused a significant destruction in Petrinja, a town southeast of the capital Zagreb.
The earthquake, which downed phone lines and sent Croatians into a state of shock, was felt throughout the country on Tuesday, as well as in neighbouring Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and as far away as Graz in southern Austria.
Croatian Defense Minister Tomo Medved said the death toll reached six, including a 12-year-old girls death in Petrinja and five more near Glina.
“We have a lot of victims. In the vicinity of Glina, in the town of Majske Poljane, five deaths have been confirmed so far. With a girl from Petrinja, a total of six people died in this devastating earthquake,” Medved told reporters in Glina.
The destruction of Petrinja
“The centre of Petrinja as it used to be no longer exists,” Croatria’s state HRT television reported, saying people remained inside collapsed buildings.
Al Jazeera reporter Marin Versic, reporting from Petrinja, described scenes of chaos as emergency services rushed to find survivors and treat the injured.
“They are trying to organise themselves. People are shouting, saying that the nursing home should be attended to first.”Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbovic said in a statement broadcast by HRT TV: “My town has been completely destroyed, we have dead children.
“This is like Hiroshima – half of the city no longer exists.”
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and other government ministers arrived in Petrinja and Glina after the earthquake.
He said the army has 500 places ready in barracks to house people, while others will be accommodated in nearby hotels and other places.
“No one must stay out in the cold tonight,” the prime minister said.
Al Jazeera reporters in the town witnessed a boy and his father being pulled from a car buried in the rubble.
