Predictions by astrologist Emil Leshtanski that the central Bulgaria town of Haskovo would be hit by a strong earthquake at 4am on April 19 2009 proved false.

 

Not a single tremor was registered in the area at that time, local media quoted authorities as saying, and who had said that the prediction could not possibly be accurate.

 
Lestahnski made the predictions a week ago, based on observations of planets and stars, and since then people in Haskovo and the region had feared that they could be hit by something similar to the earthquake in Italy which claimed several hundred lives.  

Bulgarian news agency BTA said that a large number of Haskovo citizens stayed awake through the night waiting for the earthquake to hit. Others decided to leave town for the night for the same reason.

Local police said that a small number of people spent the night in their cars. Not a single crime had been reported during the night, police said.

Haskovo regional governor Raina Yovcheva said that there had been some panic in the town on April 18 2009 but now the situation had calmed. "A lot of this panic happened because the media paid too much of an attention to Leshtanski and his predictions," she told Bulgarian news agency Focus.
 
On April 18 2009 prosecutors and Yovcheva said that Leshtanski could be prosecuted for deliberately spreading panic.

 

When asked by Bulgarian National Television why he was making his claims Leshtanski said: "If you had such a vital information about something that can damage people’s life, would you hide it from them".

So far the only people who have profited from the situation are the local insurance companies who have never experienced such a boom in housing insurances.