Mitsotakis visits quake-hit island, calls for damage evaluation

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the eastern Aegean island of Samos on Saturday to inspect the damages caused by a powerful earthquake that killed two teenagers and raised several old buildings to the ground.

Mitsotakis presided over a meeting of government and local officials whom he urged to evaluate the damages in infrastructure.

“The first thing I want to understand is to have a complete picture of the extent of the damages to private property and public infrastructure,” he stressed at the start of the meeting which included Deputy Civil Protection minister Nikos Hardalias,

Officials also discussed the immediate next steps that need to be taken as well as medium-term interventions required mainly on infrastructure.

He then inspected damages at the towns of Vathi and Karlovasi.

During his visit, Mitsotakis also met with the parents of the two teenagers who died when a wall collapsed during Friday's 6.7-magnitude tremor and expressed his condolences and deep sorrow.

Meanwhile, the municipalities of eastern and western Samos declared a state of emergency for six months (until 30 April 2021).

The island of Chios, which suffered damages by the earthquake, also declared a state of emergency.