ATHENS, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Heavy rains in Greece have flooded homes, businesses and roads. One person died after a wall collapsed in bad weather, the fire brigade said on Tuesday.
Storm Daniel has battered western and central Greece since Monday, prompting hundreds of calls to emergency services to evacuate water just days after a deadly forest fire that has burned for more than two weeks in the country’s north has been brought under control.
“The man died when a wall collapsed near the city of Volos due to bad weather,” a fire brigade official told Reuters, giving no further details.
According to the Athens News Agency, the wall collapsed when the man, a cattle breeder, tried to reach his animals.
About 94 inmates were moved to a safer place after part of their nursing home in Volos was damaged by rain, another fire brigade official said.
[1/5]A fallen tree is seen in a flooded river during a storm in Volos, Greece on September 5, 2023. Sevina Darioto/Euroginissi via REUTERS Get license rights
Footage from state broadcaster ERT showed cars washed ashore by heavy rains in the port city of Volos on Pagasetic Gulf.
A man is missing in Volos after his car was washed away by rain on Tuesday, fire brigade spokesman Ioannis Artoboios told Sky television.
His son came out but the father was taken away and a search operation was on.
“This is the most extreme weather in terms of the amount of rainfall within 24 hours recorded in the country,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kigilias said in a statement, urging people to stay indoors.
Authorities have restricted traffic in Volos and the nearby mountainous region of Pelion, where the storm caused extensive power outages.
Flash floods in Greece in 2017 killed 25 people and left hundreds homeless.
Report of Lefteris Papadimas; Additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Sandra Maler
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