For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
An American reported missing on a Greek island was found dead on the beach on Sunday, officials said, becoming the third visitor to die amid a “history making” heatwave across the Meditteranean.
The 55-year-old tourist, whose identity has not yet been released, vanished on the small island of Mathraki on June 11, when temperatures reached as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
“There is a common pattern − they all went for a hike amid high temperatures,” Petros Vassilakis, the police spokesman for the Southern Aegean, told Reuters.
It came as two French women, aged 64 and 73, have been missing since Friday on the island of Sikinos, while retired Los Angeles County deputy sheriff Albert Calibet has not been seen on Amorgos since Tuesday.
Have you been affected by this? Email barney.davis.ind@independent.co.uk
Temperatures to remain high – albeit down from extreme highs seen last week
Temperatures in many parts of Greece are expected to peak in the mid to high 30s this week, as searches continue for tourists who have gone missing while walking.
In Rhodes, the mercury will hit 36C this week, according to the Met Office.
While falling from the highs of 44C seen on Thursday, Crete is expected to see highs of 30C and 31C on Monday and Tuesday, before falling some later in the week.
Santorini, close to Sikinos, where rescuers are searching for two French women missing since Friday, will see temperatures hit close to 30C over the coming days.
Girlfriend worried sick as former deputy still missing on Amorgos
The search continues for a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who has been missing since Tuesday on the Greek Island of Amorgos.
59-year-old Albert Calibet of Hermosa Beach, California, was reported missing when he failed to return from a hike six days ago.
Drone video obtained by Los Angeles station KABC showed rescue crews searching the rocky terrain where they believed Calibet was hiking.
“We’re sick to our stomachs, knowing he’s out there somewhere,” Calibet’s girlfriend, Debbie Leshane, told KABC.
Last sighting of American tourist on isolated island of Mathraki
The 55-year-old American was last seen on Tuesday at a tavern in Mathraki, west of Corfu Island, where he was staying with a friend, investigators told ABC News.
The friend called the police after he returned home Thursday and found the door of the house open, the lights on, and the air conditioning unit running, but there was no sign of the missing American or his identification and travel documents, according to investigators.
Mathraki has no police station or coast guard so ;aw enforcement officers from Corfu were called in to assist with the investigation.
A coroner was headed to the island Sunday to conduct a preliminary investigation, the president of Mathraki Island said.
The body is expected to be taken to nearby Corfu Island, where an autopsy will be performed, officials said.
American 55-year-old found dead on secluded Mathraki island
It is only accessible by boat from Agios Stefanos and receives very few tourists, even during the high season.
There are no buses and almost no cars, on the island with boat and motorbike the most common transport modes used by locals.
Visitors were invited to explore the island on foot.
There is no camping on the island, with only a few rooms to let around the port.
The only village in Mathraki is Chorio, on the southern side of the island.
Mathraki Island has a 2 kilometres long ribbon of sandy beach, with intermittent rock shade, stretching the across the east side of the island.
On the west side, a walk takes in the Kato Mathraki church and leads to different and varied beaches.
Pictures show search for Dutch tourist, 74, found dead in ravine on Samos
Tourists often unaware of risks, says search chief
On the island of Samos, a 74-year-old Dutch tourist disappeared while hiking on Sunday. Rescue teams on the tourist island in the eastern Aegean sea said the man vanished in the area of Marathokampos.
Their body was later found in a ravine, by a firefighter drone.
Dimitris Katatzis, head of the Samos rescue team, said tourists are unaware of the risks they face walking in the heat. They often “veer off track” to see sites and then get lost, he told local media, adding: “We saw a couple [of foreigners] walking a trail in 41C without hats. It defies logic.”
Greek PM considering cap on cruise ship numbers
In addition to record temperatures, Greece is expected to see record levels of tourism this year.
Overtourism is an issue in Greece, as it is in other holiday hotspots across Europe. The ombudsman report said that Santorini – a small island in the Aegean Sea with 15,550 residents – receives more than 5.5 million visitors annually, twice the number it hosted in 2012.
“In Santorini, even tourists complain about the great number of tourists,” it added.
On Friday, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with Bloomberg that the government is also considering imposing a cap on the number of cruise ships visiting the most popular tourist islands.
Passengers stuck in plane on runway for three hours with no cooling in Athens heatwave
At Athens airport, passengers on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha were forced to wait hours on board due to a technical problem last week. Passengers reportedly fainted due to a lack of air conditioning.
About 49 Thai Muay Thai team members returning from the world championships were onboard the Doha-bound Qatar Airways flight 204 on Monday in 39C, which was delayed at the Athens airport.
The captain refused to allow passengers to deboard the aircraft despite the air conditioning system being out of order, the passengers complained. They were kept on the plane for three hours with the flight doors closed, Thai newspaper Matichon reported.
The extreme temperature inside the flight caused nosebleeds in travellers, while some had to rely on oxygen masks.
Greek infrastructure struggling with extreme temperatures
The heat not only closed tourist attractions last week but schools across the country were forced to shut their doors just days before the start of the three-month-long break.
Greek schoolchildren are given three months off for summer. With temperatures rising, the holidays start in the middle of June and the next term starts again in the middle of September.
Despite schools being closed for lessons other students were forced to sit Panhellenic exams, the equivalent to A-levels, during the heatwave – many in poorly air-conditioned rooms. Parents in Athens and on the island of Thessaloniki were asked to bring fans when they dropped their children off for exams.
Workers in Athens were told to avoid activity between midday and 5pm and elderly people and those with chronic ailments were told to stay indoors.
Longest heat wave ‘in decades’ to hit more than 100million Americans
It is not just Greece contending with an unprecedented heatwave.
While the heatwave hitting Greece is the earliest in any year on record, large swathes of the United States could experience the longest heatwave seen for decades, according to the US National Weather Service.
Much of the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Northeast, and the Mid-Atlantic will experience the hottest temperatures of the summer so far, the service said, with some areas due to find themselves in daily and monthly-record breaking heat.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmluZGVwZW5kZW50LmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQvZXVyb3BlL2dyZWVjZS13ZWF0aGVyLW1pc3NpbmctdG91cmlzdHMtaGVhdHdhdmUtaXNsYW5kcy1tb3NsZXktYjI1NjM3NTUuaHRtbNIBAA?oc=5
2024-06-17 19:30:55Z
CBMidWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmluZGVwZW5kZW50LmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQvZXVyb3BlL2dyZWVjZS13ZWF0aGVyLW1pc3NpbmctdG91cmlzdHMtaGVhdHdhdmUtaXNsYW5kcy1tb3NsZXktYjI1NjM3NTUuaHRtbNIBAA
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar