Three tremors shake Crete

Three moderate earthquakes rattled residents of eastern Crete and the nearby islands of Kasos and Karpathos in the southern Aegean early on Friday.

All three quakes struck some 30 kilometers off the coast of Zakros on Crete's eastern tip.

The first, with a magnitude of 3.9 Richter, struck at 4.16 a.m., according to the National Observatory's Geodynamic Institute.

This was soon followed by a 4-magnitude tremor at 4.24 a.m. in the same area. The third quake was stronger, at 4.5 on the Richter scale, and came at 5.11 a.m., the Geodynamic Institute reported.

The European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) gave a higher reading of 4.7 Richter for the last of the three tremors.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.