Earthquake experts were not able to offer reassurances on Thursday over whether continued intense seismic activity around the Aegean island of Santorini was on the cusp of easing.

“We are not yet in a position to say that we see any indication suggesting the sequence is gradually coming to an end. We are still in the middle of the process,” the director of Greece’s Geodynamic Institute, Vasilis Karastathis, told state broadcaster ERT on Thursday morning.

“Seismic activity continues at the same intense pace as in previous days, with a relatively high number of earthquakes exceeding a magnitude of 4,” he said, adding that Wednesday’s 5.2 tremor – the strongest in the sequence so far – “does not significantly alter the overall picture.”

His colleague, Thanasis Ganas, who is the general director of research at the Geodynamic Institute, agreed, though he appeared slightly more upbeat in his comments to ERT.

The sequence, he said, “is by no means in decline… it is still evolving.” However, he added, “the escalation we had observed appears to be gradually decreasing. The intensity is starting to subside, though it has not yet fully stabilized. We are one step away from stabilization.”