A shallow magnitude 4.8 earthquake hit the southern Spanish region near the historic city of Granada on Tuesday morning, leaving at least three people with minor injuries, damaging multiple buildings and vehicles, and forcing the temporary closure of high-profile sites including the iconic Alhambra Palace, local and national authorities confirmed.
According to Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN), the tremor registered at 10:37 local time (08:37 GMT), with its epicenter located approximately 10 kilometers south of Granada, close to the small town of Alhendín. The quake struck at a depth of less than 10 kilometers, making it more widely felt across the surrounding area. IGN officials also noted that this earthquake is the most significant event in an ongoing sequence of shallow tremors that have shaken the region since last Friday, all of which have been detected across a wide geographic zone.
In the immediate aftermath of the tremor, hundreds of local residents rushed out of residential and commercial buildings onto city streets, driven by fear of potential strong aftershocks. Falling rubble from damaged structures damaged multiple parked cars across the affected area, and multiple public facilities—including local museums, government administrative buildings, and community sports centers—have been temporarily shuttered pending safety inspections.
Witnesses described the experience as deeply alarming, noting that the tremor was far more intense than the minor seismic activity the region sees on a regular basis. “Everything came crashing down. It was terrifying,” Cristina Ruiz Lopez, a laboratory worker who was shopping at a Granada supermarket when the quake hit, told AFP. Alfonso Malpica, a resident of a ground-floor apartment in central Granada, told local newspaper El País that the quake was “stronger than the ones that happen from time to time, the ones we’re used to.”
Officials managing the Alhambra Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its medieval Islamic architecture that draws more than 2 million international tourists every year, announced the site would remain closed through Tuesday afternoon while engineering teams carry out a full structural assessment to rule out any hidden damage. Granaja’s metro network also implemented precautionary measures, reducing train speeds across all lines to 30 kilometers per hour for safety reasons, and warning commuters to expect minor service delays as a result of the new speed restrictions.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been no reports of fatalities or critical injuries linked to the earthquake, and emergency response teams are continuing to survey damaged areas to address safety hazards.