SAMOS, Greece — A total of 300 buildings on the Aegean island of Samos have so far been judged to be temporarily unsafe to inhabit among those inspected by infrastructure ministry civil engineers up until late on Sunday. Fifty-seven civil engineers went to island a few hours after the strong quake on Friday afternoon to assess the damage to buildings and to the island's ports and other infrastructure.

Petsas: Condolences to the families of quake victims

Regarding the strong earthquake that hit Samos island on Friday, government spokesperson Stelios Petsas said that "the prime minister and the government send their condolences to the families of the two children that died in the quake. We wish all the injured a speedy recovery and we express our gratitude to the staff of the agencies that mobilised immediately and, of course, to the Civil Protection Agency." He noted that the 112 emergency number operated immediately and efficiently, sending warning messages about the tsunami that followed the quake.

Petsas said the immediately after the quake "Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, noting that in these moments the priority is the protection of human lives. Despite the positive climate that prevailed during the phone call, which could have become an opportunity to defuse the tension, a few hours later Turkey issued another illegal NAVTEX in an area inside the Greek continental shelf. We immediately delivered a demarche to the Turkish foreign ministry and informed our allies and partners"

The government spokesperson underlined that "Greece urges Turkey to immediately revoke the illegal NAVTEX and to return to the exploratory contacts for the resolution of the one and only outstanding issue between the two countries, the delimitation of the maritime zones".