Six people died in the strong floods. Meanwhile, hundreds of people were rescued from the flooded areas. A newlywed couple from Graz is still missing.
Two Austrians are missing in the severe floods in Greece. “Unfortunately, we have to confirm at this time that two Austrian citizens are missing in Pelion, which was seriously affected by the storms. The Austrian embassy in Athens and the honorary consulate in Volos are in continuous contact with local authorities in order to provide the best possible support in the search for missing people,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
According to the portal “ekathimerini.com”, they are a newlywed couple from Graz whose holiday accommodation was destroyed on Tuesday in the Pelion region. So, the couple fled to a hill to escape the bodies of water. Since then, they have been missing or cannot be reached.
Rescue work in central Greece was in full swing. Two more fatal victims were rescued on Thursday night, the fire department announced. This brought the death toll to six. In addition, hundreds of people have already been rescued from flooded areas.
Damages not yet foreseeable
For the first time on Thursday afternoon, helicopters were able to fly to completely flooded villages in Karditsa municipality to rescue people from rooftops; Before that the storm was very strong. The military was also called in and advanced into areas inaccessible with armored vehicles, as reported by Greek media. The extreme weather is expected to end this Friday, as meteorologists predicted – the damage cannot yet be predicted.
A collapsed road Portal/Louisa Gouliamaki
In the cities of Volos and Larisa the situation was catastrophic. In Larisa, after days of rain, around 80 people were surrounded by floods for more than 24 hours, without food or drinking water, as reported in the newspaper “To Proto Thema”. Finally, a resident came with a tractor and trailer and brought people to a safe place.
In the port city of Volos, with around 150,000 inhabitants, heavy rains washed countless tons of mud onto the streets. Automobile traffic remained banned until further notice to keep the way clear for rescuers and because roads were flooded or destroyed. Electricity and water supplies had not yet been restored as of Thursday night. Meanwhile, the supply of drinking water in supermarkets was running low; The images showed lines of people queuing to buy some bottles of water amid the floods. There are also growing problems with food supply, reported the daily newspaper “Kathimerini”.
500 vacationing families trapped by water
While the rest of Greece – and tourism there – is unlikely to be affected, around 500 families holidaying in the Pelion holiday region of Thessaly are said to have been trapped by water. This is what the deputy mayor of South Pelion, Dimitris Parrisiadis, told “Kathimerini”. The destruction is enormous and most villages are still isolated from the water. “I estimate that there are still around 500 families of Greek and foreign tourists in southern Pelion who cannot leave.”
There was no information from the Fire Department or Police about the number of missing people. This was not possible because they had not yet penetrated the closed cities, it was said. As the people there are left without electricity and now also without cell phone batteries and are unable to communicate with the outside world, it is unknown who is missing.
Eight dead in western Turkey
The death toll in western Turkey has risen to eight following the floods. The body of a 53-year-old man was recovered in Kirklareli province, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria, state news agency Anadolu reported on Thursday. The man was found dead in his car. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on platform X (formerly Twitter) that the search for missing people was now complete.
On Tuesday, heavy rain caused flooding in the Greek border region and the metropolis of Istanbul. A total of six people died in Kirklareli province and two in Istanbul. The meteorological authority warned that there could be more heavy rain in western Turkey and the Black Sea on Thursday night. (APA/dpa)