Two people have died as a cyclone pounded central Greece, flooding streets and homes, the authorities said on Saturday.
Cyclone Ianos, classified as a Mediterranean hurricane, or “medicane,” uprooted trees and caused power outages on the Ionian islands and the western Peloponnese. It swept through central Greece, hitting areas in and around the cities of Karditsa and Farsala.
The body of an elderly woman was found in a flooded house in a village near Farsala, while a 63-year-old man was found dead in Karditsa, fire brigade officials said.
The search was continuing for two other people who have been reported missing, the officials added.
Authorities said a woman who is missing ignored instructions by firefighters and police not to drive into an area where a bridge spans a river.
Emergency workers rescued more than 600 people.
“We’re dealing with a total catastrophe,” Farsala resident Nikolaos Gousios told state TV.
The heavy rainfall turned Karditsa, in one of Greece’s biggest plains, into a lake.
Video footage showed flooded highways and agricultural land turned into mud lakes and farmers carrying their sheep to safety.
Images captured an overflowing river flooding its banks and damaging roads. A medical center in the town of Mouzaki partially collapsed.
Train services between the capital, Athens, and the northern city of Thessaloniki were suspended.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the government would provide economic relief to the affected areas.
“Saving human lives is our priority,” he said.
The fire brigade said it had received more than 2,450 calls for assistance to rescue trapped people, cut down trees, and pump out water from homes and stores.
On Saturday, the storm reached the greater Athens region, Attica. There were no reports of damage.
Water from a river that burst its banks damaged at least two bridges and several buildings. Parts of the stricken area were without electricity.
The storm was projected to move on to the Greek islands including Crete.
Cyclones were first recorded in Greece in 1995 and have become more frequent in the past few years.
Additional reporting by AP
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS