One of Greece's top seismologists is under investigation over an April Fool's joke warning that a huge "funnel" could open up under the popular tourist destination Santorini island.
Akis Tselentis, the director of Greece's Geodynamic Institute and Tsunami Center, on Wednesday posted on Facebook a photo of himself in a mock mugshot pose, holding a sign that read "guilty of April Fool's joke".
"We live in a country where humour is persecuted," he added.
On Tuesday, a prosecutor ordered a preliminary investigation to determine whether Tselentis' April 1 posting qualified as spreading false news.
"Things are not well regarding Santorini," Tselentis had said.
"From January onwards we have a gradual disappearance of magma beneath the volcano," the April Fool's post said.
Tselentis said there was a "major possibility" that magma would shift towards a fictional volcano, leaving a funnel vacuum that would "suck the waters of the Aegean".