Rhodes earthquake: Tremor hits British holiday hotspot in Greece

Britons on their summer holidays in Greece may have felt the earth move after an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 4.9 occurred on the island of Rhodes.

The tremor, which happened at 10.19pm on Wednesday in the holiday hotspot, was confirmed by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).

They said they did not expect it to “have caused any significant damage”, but added it was “probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter”.

There are around half-a-million quakes a year that register between 2.5 to 5.4 magnitude which are strong enough to be felt but only cause minor damage.

This one was strong enough that the experts predicted it would have been felt in other areas popular with tourists including Faliraki which is just 34 miles from the epicentre of the quake.

The EMSC also tracked a number of aftershocks with Greece and Turkey experiencing less powerful tremors on Thursday morning.

Rhodes is a huge tourist hotspot combining golden beaches with a world heritage site, bringing in about 2.5 million tourists a year in 2022.

Last year, nearby Turkey was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.8 which caused widespread damage and killed tens of thousands of people and left millions homeless.

It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the region and was felt as far away as Egypt.

There were estimated to be more than 30,000 aftershocks in the three months that followed the initial quake in February last year.