Crete earthquake – A terrified British mother flees the hotel with her baby girl as the earthquake hits a Greek island

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A terrified British mother was forced to flee her hotel room with her infant daughter when an earthquake struck the island of Crete.

Sophia Meadowcroft, 24, of Hornby, Lancashire, says the entire room started shaking when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Greek island — killing a father of two.

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Sofia Meadowcroft ran away from her hotel room with her infant daughterCredit: Sophia Meadowcroft

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The 6.0-magnitude earthquake damaged buildings on the island

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Hotel occupants forced to evictCredit: Sophia Meadowcroft

British tourists were evacuated from resorts, and islanders took to the streets when a giant earthquake shook homes at 9:17 a.m. local time on Monday morning.

Sophia is staying at a hotel near Heraklion and says she is grateful that her one-year-old daughter Ayla was strapped to her stroller when the earthquake struck.

She told The Sun Online: “It felt like the train was outside our room and everything started shaking.

“The headboard of the bed was hitting the wall, then the bed moved and the perfume bottle fell to the floor and shattered.

“Fortunately my daughter was in the stroller. She would have been thrown on the floor if she hadn’t.

“I was really scared at first I didn’t know what was going on.

“I quickly realized that there were no trains near the hotel.”

Sofia said the entire hotel on the beach was evacuated and many people were having breakfast when the quake started, but guests were allowed back to the hotel and there were no casualties in the complex.

However, restaurants at the resort were closed due to shattered glass and her room was cordoned off due to damages.

A brutal earthquake caused the church’s dome to fall on the builders inside – killing the new grandfather who pulled his trapped son out of the rubble.

He was among at least 11 injured as up to 1,000 homes were reported to have been destroyed on Greece’s largest island by the 6.0-magnitude earthquake.

It also triggered rockslides and issued a tsunami warning, although no dangerous waves were reported.

Are you in Crete and felt the earthquake? If so, please call (+44) 0207782 4104 or email [email protected]

Abe Iakovos Tsagarakis, 65 – who turned very recently – was named as the first death, Protothema reports.

It was one of three masons trapped under a demolished dome during the restoration of the Church of the Prophet Elias in Arcalokuri.

His son is said to have broken bones but survived after rescuers were called.

Neighbors said they were working on the church to repair it after damage from previous earthquakes.

Vianos Mayor Minas Stavrakakis said: “Unfortunately, my dear friend and colleague tragically passed away this morning in the Church of the Prophet Elias.

“At the time of the earthquake, he was working with his son in the church when the dome fell.

“His son is in shock because he was with his father. The victim was a father of two and he became very late.”

Crete is used to earthquakes but experts said the day was especially devastating because it was close to the surface and lasted so long.

A series of powerful aftershocks continued to rock the island today, adding to the devastation.

Street panic

One of the worst affected villages was Arkalochori, with 80 percent of all homes damaged, according to Mayor Krisola Cekekeroglu.

Officials warned anyone whose home was damaged to stay outdoors until they could be searched.

Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides said tents would be set up for about 2,500 earthquake victims.

Emergency teams are also assessing structural damage in schools and hospitals.

At least 11 people were treated at a hospital across Crete.

A person in the village of Patsideros was trapped inside his home by the rubble outside his door.

There were also reports of a group of people trapped in a pharmacy who managed to escape on their own.

The quake had a depth of two kilometers and an epicenter 23 kilometers northwest of the capital, Heraklion.

One of the locals tweeted, “Okay, that was interesting – just as we were finishing breakfast, it looked like a truck was going through the wall and everything shook.”

Another resident wrote: “I’m shivering so badly, this was the biggest and most dangerous earthquake I’ve ever had.”

According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), the earthquake measured 6.0 on the Richter scale.

‘Without warning, by surprise, suddenly’

Greek scientists described the earthquake as “unexpectedly strong” and cautioned that it was not certain if another, larger tremor was on the way.

“This earthquake was suddenly a thunderbolt,” said Professor Ethemios Likas, who heads the Faculty of Geology in Geoenvironment at the University of Athens.

“The scientific community believes that the phenomenon is over,” he added, referring to a four-month period of seismic activity in the region.

“We were all wrong because the earthquake was totally unexpected,” he added.

Likas said it was necessary to evacuate the old buildings and schools before he flew to Crete on a government plane to look after the damage.

“We can’t say for sure yet if this is the main earthquake,” he said.

One Twitter user wrote: “In the past 30 days, Crete (Greece) has had a 5.8 earthquake, a 4.3 magnitude earthquake, 34 between 3.0 and 4.0, and 136 between 2.0 and 3.0.

“There were also 86 sub-magnitude 2.0 earthquakes that people don’t usually feel.”

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Builder Iakovos Tsagarakis, 65, is named as the first fatality

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A church in Crete collapsed, destroyed by a huge earthquake

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Emergency workers clear the rubble

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Reports said local residents rushed to the streets as buildings shook

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Children from a local school gather outside, out of danger Photo: Reuters

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Products thrown off the shelves of the local supermarket

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