A warning has been issued

The quake hit the large Greek island of Crete in the early hours of Wednesday morning with the tremor being felt as far away as Egypt.

Seismologists at the Athens Geodynamic Institute registered the epicentre near to the island of Karpathos, 35km (22 miles) deep in the Earth's crust.

The news led to Greek authorities issuing a temporary tsunami warning.

The country’s Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection said on X: "A magnitude 5.9 earthquake occurred 48km SE of Kasos. Risk of possible Tsunami in your area. Move away from the coast immediately. Follow the instructions of Local Authorities."

Europe is not known to be particularly prone to strong earthquakes, however, countries along the Mediterranean coast are a lot more susceptible, due to lying near to the contact points of the Eurasian and African tectonic plates.

This makes Italy and Spain prone to notable earthquakes.

Meanwhile, the real hotspots are concentrated around Greece and Turkey due to lying on the smaller Aegean and Anatolian plates.

Elsewhere, Iceland experiences up to 100 small earthquakes a day, sitting close to the meeting point of the North American and Eurasian plates.

Earlier this year, Santorini was subject to an onslaught of small earthquakes.

In Greece, for the time being, there have been no reports of injury or serious property damage in the wake of this latest earthquake.

Authorities are maintaining that people remain vigilant.