ATHENS, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Heavy rains flooded homes, businesses and roads in Greece, and one man died after a wall collapsed due to bad weather, the fire brigade said on Tuesday.
Storm Daniel has battered western and central Greece since Monday, prompting hundreds of calls for emergency services to get water pumped just days after a deadly forest fire that has been raging for more than two weeks in the north of the country was brought under control.
“The man died after a wall collapsed near the city of Volos, possibly due to bad weather,” a fire department official told Reuters, without giving further details.
According to the Athens News Agency, the wall collapsed when the man, a cattle breeder, was trying to reach his animals.
Another fire brigade official said about 94 prisoners were moved to safety after heavy rains damaged part of the nursing home in Volos.
[1/5]A fallen tree is seen in a flooded river during a storm in the city of Volos, Greece, September 5, 2023. Sifina Darioto/Eurokenesi via Reuters Obtain licensing rights
Footage broadcast by state broadcaster ERT showed cars in the port city of Volos on the Pagasetic Gulf washed up on muddy beaches by torrential rains.
Fire brigade spokesman Ioannis Artobios told Skai TV that a man was missing in Volos after his car was swept away by the rainstorm earlier on Tuesday.
His son got out but the father was taken away and the search is still on.
“It is the most extreme weather in terms of the amount of rain in the 24 hours since records were kept in the country,” Minister of Climate Crisis Management and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias said in a statement, urging people to stay indoors.
Authorities restricted traffic in Volos and the nearby mountainous region of Pelion, where the storm caused widespread power outages.
Flash floods in Greece in 2017 killed 25 people and left hundreds homeless.
Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Additional reporting by Angeliki Cotanto; Editing by Angus McSwan and Sandra Mahler
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