The Turkish earthquake fault will not affect areas of Greece, said the country’s top seismologist Efthymios Lekkas, head of the Earthquake Planning and Protection Orhanization (OASP).
Speaking to Skai TV on Saturday, Lekkas reassured that the fault line in Antakya can have no effect on Greek territory.
“All such comment made by colleagues – and I am sorry to say so – are not valid,” he said with a clear hint to some disaster-scholars who predicted a mega-earthquake of even 8.5 R.
“To dispel the concerns of all Greeks, because we hear things that are unacceptable and exaggerated, in Greece there is no chance of seeing an earthquake of this magnitude,” Lekkas stressed.
“There must be moderation from all colleagues. I say explicitly and unequivocally that there is no connection between the fault that caused Monday’s earthquake and Greece,” he stressed.
Lekkas, who accompanied Greek rescuers of EMAK to SE Turkey, said that “the extent of the disaster is about equal to mainland Greece, it is 500 kilometers long and 20 to 40 km wide.”
He also explained that the fault in Turkey demarcates the area of the disaster and imposes the type of disaster.
“The approximately 30,000 [building] collapses were caused by tectonic subsidence. From this we have to formulate the seismic regulations,” he said.
He added that “anti-seismic regulations in Greece are much stronger.”
“Such damage would not have happened in Greece… there is no comparison,” he stressed.
Speaking to other media, Lekkas estimated that death toll in Turkey and Syria could be over 50,000.
