Tragedies not forgotten: The most devastating earthquakes in former Yugoslavia

Sixty-three years ago, on July 26, 1963, Skopje was devastated by an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. The seismic event struck at precisely 5:17 AM, leaving the city in ruins. It resulted in the tragic deaths of 1,070 people, injured around 4,000, and left more than 100,000 residents without homes. While devastating, this was not the strongest earthquake to hit the region in recent history.

Less than 16 years later, on April 15, 1979, at 7:19 AM, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Montenegrin coast, with its epicenter between Bar and Ulcinj. Felt also in Albania, this earthquake is recorded as the most destructive in the area's history. It claimed over 130 lives, 101 in Montenegro and 35 in Albania, and displaced over 100,000 people.

Older residents of Banja Luka still recall the powerful earthquake of October 27, 1969. This 6.4 magnitude tremor, preceded by a strong foreshock the previous night, killed 15 people and injured 1,117. The material damage was immense, with 86,000 apartments destroyed and significant damage to public institutions.

Half a century later, an earthquake of nearly the same magnitude struck Petrinja, Croatia, on December 29, 2020. The 6.3 magnitude quake, occurring southeast of Zagreb, left apocalyptic scenes, claiming the lives of seven people, including a 12-year-old girl, and causing extensive material damage. Serbia also experienced a deadly earthquake in this century when a 5.4 magnitude tremor hit Kraljevo on November 3, 2010, killing two people, injuring around 180, and causing approximately 2.5 billion dinars in damage to residential buildings alone.