Residents of a region in western France are counting the cost after being rocked by a rare earthquake that damaged dozens of homes.
Several houses in the Charente-Maritime department north of Bordeaux suffered cracks, churches were destroyed and residents were in dire need of rehabilitation, reports RTE.
There were no fatalities, although the quake was felt as far north as Rennes, Brittany, and two aftershocks were reported this morning.
In the town of La Ligne, many houses are cracked with stones and tiles on the ground and chimneys look like they might collapse at any moment.
The fire department found dozens of homes uninhabitable.
In Laigne, “135 buildings were affected by the earthquake overall” and “170 people need to be relocated” local fire chief Didier Marcaillo said, reports RTE.
“Most of the houses in the centre of the town have been affected to varying degrees. The church is completely unusable. The school will have to be closed as a precaution,” added prefect Nicolas Basselier, the top government-appointed regional official in Charente-Maritime, reports RTE.
The quake was also felt in other areas, including the nearby department of Deux-Sèvres, where two people suffered minor injuries, emergency services said.
“It is an unusual earthquake on our territory, so I would like to express all my solidarity with the populations who may have been worried,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on a visit to northern France, reports RTE.
National earthquake monitoring network RENASS registered a 5.3-magnitude quake, while France’s Central Seismological Bureau (BCSF) put it at 5.8.
Seismologists said it was the biggest earthquake in the region since 1972.
Earthquakes of magnitude five or higher are rare in France, the most recent occurring in the remote southern regions of Drôme and Ardèche in November 2019.
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