Scientists have detected several thousand earthquakes, the vast majority of them with small magnitudes, in just over two weeks near Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini.

It welcomes around 3 million visitors per year, but between January 26 and February 8, the Seismology Laboratory of the University of Athens has registered a staggering 12,800 earthquakes in the Santorini-Amorgos zone, the strongest of these was last night at a magnitude of 5.3.

The threat of a more major earthquake seems to have subsided on the most visited of the Greek islands but experts disagree on the origin of the tremors that have caused 11,000 of the 15,000 permanent residents to flee.

The top tourist island of Santorini has been struck by its strongest earthquake in weeks amid a wave of increased seismic activity in the region.

Experts say the Greek island of Santorini has been hit by more than 1,000 earthquakes, but they're not linked to the region's active volcanoes.

February marks the unofficial start of the tourist season in the Greek island of Santorini - when the first cruise ships are due to arrive and the Easter holidays approach. But with thousands of earthquakes shaking the island since January and experts unable to say when they will end,

Seismologists have noted that the epicentre of the earthquakes is steadily drifting northward in the direction of Amorgos.