Berlin — Two earthquakes struck Liechtenstein just as the Alpine microstate was discussing the merits of earthquake insurance.
The first minor quake occurred just before 2 p.m. (6 a.m. Eastern) on Thursday. Legislator Bettina Petzold-Maehr had recently cautioned that the likelihood of all Liechtenstein people being impacted by a countrywide earthquake was high.
Petzold-Maehr laughed and continued until the second earthquake, which shook the room significantly. At that time, she stopped speaking to survey the room.
Bettina Petzold-Maehr stops during statements to the tiny principality’s landtag, or parliament, on September 2, 2022, as a second mild earthquake shakes the chamber during a discussion on national earthquake insurance. Liechtenstein Landtag TV
The parliament’s speaker, Albert Frick, then announced a 15-minute pause, saying, “This is becoming a little much; you never know whether there may be aftershocks.”
Thursday afternoon, a magnitude 4 earthquake struck Liechtenstein, which is located between Switzerland and Austria, according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences.
The police in Liechtenstein said that no casualties or property damage were recorded and provided a magnitude of 3.9 for the quake.
With a population of little under 39,000 and an area of 62 square miles, Liechtenstein is somewhat smaller than Washington, D.C.