Recordings of conversations appear to reveal racist attitudes among crew in connection with death of Antonis Karyotis
Outrage over the drowning of a passenger who was pushed from the ramp of a Greek ferry has mounted after leaked recordings of radio conversations appeared to reveal racist attitudes among the crew.
In one extract, the ship’s master is apparently heard saying that he thought the passenger, subsequently identified as a Greek, was a foreigner.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis faces biggest crisis yet as residents ask where money for ‘immediate’ flood relief has gone
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is facing his biggest crisis yet as – less than a week after rainstorms left vast tracts of the country’s heartlands under water – his government has come under attack for its handling of the disaster that left 15 dead.
Health experts have described conditions in the flood-stricken Thessaly region – one of Greece’s richest agricultural areas – as ripe for the spread of infectious diseases after a summer of unprecedented heat-induced forest fires.
Continue reading...Death toll reaches 12 as hundreds still thought to be marooned after deadly downpours
Rescuers in central Greece were working through the night to locate people trapped in villages deluged by flood waters as the death toll from rainstorms rose to at least 12.
Emergency services, backed by elite commando units and an ever-growing army of volunteers, sought to find hundreds still thought to be marooned in homes five days after downpours, described as the worst in the country’s history, struck.
Continue reading...Officials say many people are still trapped in central areas of the country hit by Storm Daniel
Firefighters backed by the army have rescued hundreds of people from villages in central Greece cut off by floods that have claimed at least 10 lives.
“More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” Yannis Artopios, a fire department spokesperson told the broadcaster Mega on Saturday.
Continue reading...Greek PM tours crisis-hit area amid fears death toll could rise as water levels continue to rise in some places
Helicopters and lifeboats have been deployed to rescue hundreds of villagers stranded by flood waters in central Greece after rainstorms left at least 10 people dead.
Touring the crisis-hit area of Thessaly, 185 miles north of Athens, Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, vowed to do “whatever is humanly possibly” to assist residents in areas deluged by torrential rain that also hit neighbouring Bulgaria and Turkey. A total of 22 people have died across the three countries since Tuesday.
Continue reading...Europe-wide formation is partly responsible for Storm Daniel, while the north of the continent has high temperatures
An Omega block has been in place over Europe this week, leading to some extreme weather for many. An Omega block is a synoptic setup consisting of a high-pressure region sandwiched between two low-pressure regions, creating a shape resembling the Greek letter omega.
Storm Daniel developed over the Ionian Sea partly due to this setup, causing devastating flooding across central and eastern Greece. The region’s warm seas at this time of year also helped produce the moisture needed for this storm.
Continue reading...Akif Rasuli spent more than two years behind bars after being accused of people smuggling
A Greek court has awarded thousands of euros in compensation to an Afghan refugee who spent more than two years in prison after being wrongfully accused of people smuggling, in a rare step hailed by campaigners.
A three-member appeal court sitting on the Aegean island of Lesbos ruled that Akif Rasuli had not only been unjustly jailed, but should be recompensed for the ordeal he had been made to endure.
Continue reading...At least 12 people die across three countries as torrential rainstorms cause severe damage to buildings, roads and bridges
At least 12 people have died in Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria as flash floods from torrential rainstorms turned rivers into torrents, swept away bridges and inundated streets, homes and public buildings.
Greece’s climate crisis and civil protection minister, Vassilis Kikilias, said after an emergency cabinet meeting: “This is the most extreme phenomenon in terms of the maximum amount of rain in a 24-hour period since records began in the country.”
Continue reading...Ruling against man who claimed family were ‘pushback’ victims seen as blow to efforts to make Frontex accountable
A Syrian refugee has lost a landmark case against the EU’s border protection agency, Frontex, after he and his family were forcibly deported from Greece before his asylum application was processed.
The ruling is seen as a major blow to efforts to make the operations of Frontex in Greece and other countries more transparent and accountable to the member states who employ them.
Continue reading...The photographer Gideon Mendel travelled to Rhodes a month after the fires as part of his Burning World project. He sought to document the impact on lives and landscapes
July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and Rhodes in Greece was one of many places that faced scorching temperatures and wildfires. There were no human casualties but the fire ravaged about 135,000 hectares of forest and vegetation, burned more than 50,000 olive trees and many domestic animals, destroyed about 50 homes and led to the mass evacuation of tourists from the area.
I travelled to the region a month after the fires, making new work for my Burning World project. I choose not to document the flames but rather seek out their aftermath, the traces left behind on lives and landscapes.
The Ekaterini hotel in Kiotari, south Rhodes
Continue reading...Investigation into deaths of Vincent Hong and Timothy Saville ‘let down’ by Greek authorities, says coroner
The families of two men from Yorkshire who died on a scuba diving trip in Greece have been told they may never find out exactly what happened to their loved ones.
A Hull coroner has said it is not possible to determine what caused the deaths of Dr Vincent Hong, a consultant cardiothoracic anaesthetist, and Timothy Saville, a Huddersfield businessman, who died within three days of each other on the same trip.
Continue reading...Gale-force winds and hot, dry conditions whip up flames and hamper firefighting efforts
More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries, backed by a fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters, are battling three major wildfires in Greece, two of which have been raging for days.
A huge blaze in the country’s north-eastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, believed to have caused the deaths of 20 of the 21 wildfire-related deaths in the last week, was burning for a ninth day.
Continue reading...One man confessed to having set four other fires on island of Evia as Greek authorities struggle to contain blazes
Fire department officials in Greece have arrested two men for allegedly starting wildfires on purpose, while hundreds of firefighters battled blazes that have killed at least 21 people in the past week.
One man was arrested on the Greek island of Evia for allegedly setting fire to dried grass in the Karystos area. The fire department said the man confessed to having set four other fires in the area in July and August.
Continue reading...Amnesty links wildfires and lack of legal migration routes to deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekers
Refugees and migrants in Greece are facing off against the “two great injustices of our times”, Amnesty International has said, as it linked wildfires and scant access to legal migration routes to the deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekers.
As wildfires continue to rage across swathes of Greece, authorities in the country said they were working to identify the charred remains of 18 people found this week in the dense forests that straddle the country’s north-eastern border with Turkey.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president also meets leaders of Serbia and Croatia in bid to broaden support base
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s high-speed tour of Europe’s smaller countries continued in Athens on Tuesday, where he obtained further military and diplomatic support after securing a long-awaited commitment on the provision of F-16s at the weekend.
The Ukrainian president met Serbia’s president and Croatia’s prime minister at a Balkans summit in the Greek capital, while a day earlier Greece’s prime minister had said his country would help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets.
Continue reading...Officials working to identify people found in Alexandroupolis region as firefighters battle second wave of fires
The bodies of 18 people have been found in an area of north-east Greece where firefighters are battling a major wildfire, authorities have said, as a record-breaking late summer heatwave continues to sear swathes of continental Europe.
Hundreds of firefighters were struggling on Tuesday to contain dozens of outbreaks, including several that have burned out of control for days and forced widespread evacuations, in the second deadly wave of blazes in Greece in a month.
Continue reading...Weather ballon climbs to 5,300 metres before temperature falls to 0C amid late summer heatwave
A Swiss weather balloon had to climb to an unprecedented 5,300 metres (17,400ft) before the temperature fell to 0C (32F), meteorologists have said, as a late summer heatwave and wildfires continue to pummel swathes of continental Europe.
A man was found dead in a blaze raging north of Athens on Monday as the Greek government warned of an “extreme” risk of fire across the country, while more than half of mainland France was placed under an amber heat alert.
Continue reading...Canary Islands regional president opens inquiry into fire, while people flee from four Greek villages
An out-of-control wildfire on Tenerife that has forced thousands to flee was started deliberately, authorities have said, as four more villages in Greece were evacuated in the face of another advancing blaze and more than half of mainland France was on extreme heat alert.
As much of southern Europe continues to roast after July was named the world’s hottest month on record, the Canary Islands regional president, Fernando Clavijo, said on Sunday that police had confirmed the blaze raging on the Spanish island since Tuesday had been lit intentionally, and had opened three separate lines of inquiry.
Continue reading...Vincenzo La Porta spotted in a photo of fans celebrating in Corfu after Napoli won Italy’s league championship
Love for his Naples football team betrayed the hideout of a longtime fugitive, who was captured while riding a moped on a Greek island, Italian police have said.
Naples-based Carabinieri paramilitary police said Vincenzo La Porta, who was on Italy’s list of 100 most dangerous fugitives, was spotted in a photo of fans in a restaurant in Corfu, who were celebrating after the Napoli football squad clinched Italy’s top league championship a few weeks ago.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledges ‘inconvenience for visitors’ after 20,000 people were evacuated
Tourists whose holidays on the Greek island of Rhodes were cut short due to intense wildfires are being offered a one-week free stay next year, the Greek prime minister said.
Holidaymakers and local people were forced to flee homes and hotels as the fires burned for days in July, with about 20,000 tourists rescued from danger in the largest evacuation ever undertaken by the country.
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