A powerful 5.5-magnitude earthquake was felt on Monday in parts of Spain’s Malaga province, causing a section of an airport roof to collapse.
The roof of a cafe in the departures section of the Almeria Airport even caved in, with several ceiling tiles falling off soon after.
According to Spanish airport authority AENA, the cafe had already been closed as a precautionary measure by the time the celing tiles began falling off.
“The damage occurred some time after the earthquake and not during the tremors or immediately afterwards,” the AENA statement clarified, adding that no one was hurt.
Registered at 7:13 AM local time by Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN), the quake struck at a depth of about 3km below sea level, approximately 70km from Almeria, sending shockwaves across hundreds of towns and villages in seven provinces in the coastal region closest to the epicentre.
According to the IGN, the quake’s shallow depth meant stronger shockwaves, which translates to stronger impact on provinces surrounding the epicentre.
Granada, Malaga, Jaen, and Murcia were among the hardest-hit provinces, as per an El País report.
The tremor reached an intensity of IV or V on the European Macroseismic Scale, meaning “widely observed” to “strong”, the IGN has said, as per a report from The Sun.
“I was in bed. It woke me up because the bed was moving back and forth, the light on the ceiling was swinging and my wardrobe doors were opening and closing. Probably lasted around 10 seconds,” a Murcia local said, as per the report.
