Jordanians spend night in streets from earthquake fears

A false rumor on a likely destructive earthquake in Jordan raised fear among the citizens, as thousands of them spent their night in the pavements of streets, according to the Jordanian official news agency Petra.

The agency explained that large crowds of Jordanians spent more than three hours on Sunday evening in the streets and squares in north, central and south Jordan, from fear that a presumed earthquake will take place.

Some Jordanians told Petra that fear pushed them to leaver their houses and get into the streets to sleep on pavements, noting that they had received telephone calls warning them to stay outside their houses between 12 midnight and 3 a.m, in precaution that an earthquake is to take place.

The agency quoted the governor of the capital Amman Saad al-Wadi al-Manasir as saying that "necessary measures were taken in collaboration with the police circles and administrative concerned and the citizens were asked to return back to their homes and ignore such groundless rumors.

For his part, the director of the geology department in the natural resources authority in Jordan, Darwish Jaser, said that predicting the time of an earthquake is not scientific, adding that even advanced countries which are vulnerable to earthquake like Japan and the USA had cannot predict the time of an earthquake.

Worthy mentioning that the last earthquake which hit Jordan was on July 7th this year and was at a 4.6 degree on the Richter scale. It was felt by the people of Amman and Ma'daba ( southern East) and al-Salat ( north west), according to the Jordanian natural resources authorities at that time.

The last earthquake had hit Jordan and areas of the Palestinian Authority and Israel on February 11th, 2004. It was 4.9 degree on the Richter scale. The two said quakes resulted in no damages.