Disasters & Accidents

Greece floods leave 14 dead

Vienna, Sep 10 (EFE).- The discovery in the last hours of two additional bodies of people who had been reported missing brings to 14 the official number of deaths caused by the floods in Greece this week, caused by heavy rains that the authorities have described as “unprecedented.”

The two bodies found are those of a 65-year-old man and his 88-year-old mother, who had disappeared in the region of Karditsa, the most affected by the floods.

Three people are still missing, including an Austrian tourist couple who were celebrating their honeymoon in the Mediterranean country.

The other missing person is a 42-year-old man whose vehicle was swept away by a landslide on September 5.

Public broadcaster ERT reported that since Tuesday a total 4,250 people had been rescued.

There are concerns about the high number of immigrant workers employed in agriculture, who are housed in shacks and makeshift accommodation, and who would have been directly affected by the floods.

However, the Civil Protection has stated that it has not received any more reports of missing persons. Also the Fire Brigade has said that if there were a large number of missing persons, their relatives would have contacted the authorities, the daily Kathimerini reported on Sunday.

The Minister of Civil Protection, Vasilis Kikilias, has described the huge amount of rainfall as “unprecedented,” which has caused significant damage to infrastructure.

Efthimios Lekkas, professor of Natural Disaster Management at the University of Athens, told public broadcaster ERT on Friday that the damage caused could exceed one billion euros.

In addition to infrastructure, the disaster has also dealt a huge blow to agriculture, given that the affected areas have the largest crop fields in the country. EFE

as/sc-ics

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