The picturesque island of Santorini is one of the world’s top holiday destinations but it’s making headlines for negative reasons, as large tremors continue, leading thousands to flee the island. CGTN’s Evangelo Sipsas reports from the island on the physical and financial worries of islanders and scientists.
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00:00The picturesque island of Santorini. Millions flock here every year to take pictures on those
00:05cliffs and the white houses with the blue tops. It's always big headlines in every travel agency.
00:11It's one of the number one destinations and it always makes the headlines. But now it's making
00:16headlines for another reason. Because where I'm standing, it keeps on shaking every so often. And
00:22we're talking about strong ones that you can actually feel. And that's why people are worried.
00:27And that's what made thousands to leave the island. Out of the 15,000 people who are the
00:33population of the island, 11,000 fled. Worried that a bigger term might happen and they could
00:39be caught in that. They took their families, they shut the businesses and they left. Those who are
00:45supposed to come here and work during the tourism season have not come yet. And that is worrisome
00:50because 90 percent of the economy of this island relies on tourism. Now that's the financial part.
00:57Now going to the scientific part, scientists are also worried here because these tremors,
01:03as they say, are not strong enough and a bigger one might come. And that could cause destruction.
01:09You can see those cliffs behind me. In the previous days there has been some tremors that
01:14cause rock slides. And it is worried because the houses are literally built on the edge. And if a
01:21larger tremor might happen, those could easily collapse. Now the scientists also mentioned one
01:28more thing. That there is a volcano here. And in the beginning they were saying that the tremors
01:34are not triggering. Now they're worried that it has been triggered. That's why the Greek government
01:40also have an evacuation plan on the southern part of the island to be able to take
01:45anybody who's on the island here left during any crisis moment.