A major earthquake measuring 6.1 hit the Mediterranean between Spain and Morocco early on Monday morning and just one day after a 3.9 quake hit the Algarve.
It struck at 4.22 am, 161 km south-east of Malaga, 164 km east-southeast of Gibraltar and 62km north of the city of Al Hoceima, Morocco, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
It was followed by a 5.3-magnitude tremor. Spain’s National Geographic Institute reported a total of seven aftershocks.
Tremors were felt in parts of southern Spain from Jaen to Malaga and along the Costa del Sol and in the Spanish enclave of Melilla bordering Morocco.
The worst of the quake was felt in Melilla where masonry fell from some buildings. The authorities reported some 26 people with “light injuries” and no fatalities.
"For the moment there has been only material damage and we haven't detected any that is very serious," Isidro Gonzalez, a Melilla official, told Cadena Ser radio.
"Some high buildings have cracks," he said, adding that part of facades and balconies had collapsed.
Authorities in Melilla have closed schools there as a precautionary measure to inspect the buildings and residents were instructed not to use their cars so that emergency vehicles could move about unhindered.
Authorities in Morocco said that a 12 year-old boy died of heart failure after suffering a panic attack during the earthquake, and a 35 year-old was injured after jumping out of a second-floor window during the quake.
In February 2004 a strong 6.3 earthquake near Al Hoceima took the lives of 631 people.
This earthquake hit just one day after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in southern Alaska and one in the Algarve of a 3.9 magnitude with an epicenter just 100 km west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent.
