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Magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocks Croatia; at least six killed, including child
This is the second quake in two days after a 5.2 magnitude tremor shook Petrinja on Monday
A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake tore down buildings in central Croatia on Tuesday, striking near the town of Petrinja where rescue teams raced to comb through the rubble.
The tremor, one of the strongest to rock Croatia in recent years, collapsed rooftops in Petrinja, home to some 20,000 people, and left the streets strewn with bricks and other debris.
"We are pulling people from the cars, we don’t know if we have dead or injured," Darinko Dumbovic, the mayor of Petrinja told regional broadcaster N1.
"There is general panic, people are looking for their loved ones," he added.
The latest available figures put the death toll in the quake at six, including a child, whose age has not been released yet, according to a report by The Associated Press.
The quake was also felt in the capital Zagreb, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the epicenter, where tiles were ripped off roofs and panicked residents gathered streets, according to an AFP reporter.
Electricity was cut in the city center.
The quake, which struck around 1130 GMT according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), rattled Petrinja just one day after a smaller earthquake - measured at 5.2 - struck the town, causing some damage to buildings. Smaller aftershocks from that quake continued to be felt until the much larger tremor today.
The tremors reverberated across neighbouring countries throughout the Balkans, including Serbia, Slovenia and as far away as central Europe in the Austrian capital, Vienna.
As a precaution, Slovenia moved to shut down the Krsko nuclear power plant it co-owns with Croatia.
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European Union leaders said they were closely following the "devastating earthquake" in member state Croatia.
"We are ready to support," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter, adding that the bloc's civil protection team was "ready to travel to Croatia as soon as the situation allows."
In March, Zagreb was damaged by a 5.3-magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit the capital decades.
The Balkan region lies on major fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes.