Small quake shakes Pissouri area

THE FIRST noticeable earthquake in Cyprus this year struck at 3.39am yesterday along the coast between Pissouri and Aphrodite’s Rock, notching up 4.4 on the Richter scale.

No damage has been reported.

“This was a weak quake and from such earthquakes we don’t expect any damage,” Kyriacos Solomi, head of the Geological Survey Department’s Seismology Section told the Cyprus Mail.

Solomi estimates that each month, an average of 50 quakes strike on or around Cyprus, although the vast majority of them only register 1.5 to 2.4 on the Richter scale and are too small to be felt by humans.

In an unrelated event, President Clerides attended the first service at Ayios Giorgos Church in Stroumbi near Paphos since the 1996 earthquake that caused massive damage there.

Accompanying the head of state for the service, which coincided with the feast of Saint George, were Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou and Communications Minister Averoff Neophytou.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.