Did you know that on the 17th November beach goers were evacuated from El Playazo in Nerja because of an earthquake in Greece? Yup!

Members of the Nerja Policía Local went along the Playazo Beach around 13.00h that day, asking people to move off the beach because of the risk of a tsunami.

The emergency 112 service raised the alarm, warning of a 1.5m surge in wave form. They had received the warning, in turn, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), because of an earthquake in the Greek islands, measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale earlier in the morning.

Sounds like an April Fool’s prank? Yes it does, but it wasn’t.

The municipal police chief issued the following statement: “Nerja activated the protocol because the warning spoke of waves of 1.5m in height. Finally, the alert was deactivated because 112 reported that the waves had arrived but at just 20 centimetres in height.”

However, the Servicio de Emergencias 112 said that they had not given expressed instructions to evacuate any beaches in Andalucia, but they had passed on the warning after two people had died in Greece by wave surges.

But Nerja wasn’t alone because the regional Government of Valencia also activated the protocol during 20 minutes and had evacuated the beaches in Benidorm in Alicante.

(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)