Minister Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations Minister Paulo Rangel responded to the 5.3 magnitude earthquake felt this morning in the north and south of the country as “a real test of our disaster response capabilities.”
The epicentre was located in the Atlantic Ocean, 58 kilometres west of Sines, at a depth of 10.7 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey and the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
The Acting Prime Minister thanked Civil Defence for the “highly professional approach with which they responded in the first minutes and first hour to ensure that all response capabilities would be deployed if required.”
The minister said Portugal’s anti-seismic legislation needed to be reviewed to ensure it was “strictly implemented and respected”.
Paulo Rangel spoke to journalists before a meeting with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, scheduled for 10 am this Monday in Belém.