ISSUE NO. 1595
28 Jan - 3 Feb 2016
COSTA DEL SOL
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
Earthquakes hit the Costa del Sol by Matthew Elliott THE most powerful earthquake in decades has struck Malaga Province with a magnitude 6.3 tremor scrambling emergency services across the Costa del Sol and the small Spanish enclave of Melilla on the other side of the Mediterranean, which suffered the brunt of the damage. Aftershocks have continued to rumble across the southern coast in their hundreds since the pre-dawn seism on Monday January 25, with further tremors rudely awakening residents of Fuengirola, Torremolinos, Marbella and other parts of the Costa on Wednesday. An initial assessment by the US Geological Survey identified the epicentre at 100 miles from Malaga in the Alboran Sea at a depth of 20 miles. A low likelihood of casualties or damages was predicted, but 26 injuries were reported in Melilla, with a 12-year-old boy dying after a suspected panic
attack. The quake was followed by a magnitude 5.1 tremor just 12 minutes later and was felt inland in Granada and Sevilla. Residents who recollect the Lorca devastation of 2011 have been justifiably fearful, the Murcia town losing nine lives to a magnitude 5.1 quake at a
dangerously shallow depth of less than one mile. Many were also displaced from their homes and the Military Emergencies Unit, who are now at the ready, deployed. The Iberian Peninsula registers between 1,200 and 1,400 tremors each year.