Late on Monday, Santorini was struck with its strongest earthquake yet when a 5.3-magnitude quake rattled the island - which took its current geographical shape after suffering one of the worst volcanic eruptions in human history nearly four millennia ago.
Usually teeming with tourists, incessant earthquakes have seen the Greek island of Santorini deserted by the majority of its residents.
As grey clouds descended on the deserted tourist hotspot of Santorini on Monday, the strongest earthquake out of thousands in the past fortnight struck the Greek island.
The picturesque whitewashed villages of Santorini, a tourist hub usually teeming with visitors even in the off season, have been rendered ghost towns after highly unusual seismic activity has rattled the region since late January.
"They wanted to develop the island and didn't pay attention to environmental and safety issues," said Dimitris Papanikolaou, professor of geology at the University of Athens and former head of Greece's Earthquake Planning and Protection Organisation.
