Shocking moment car is washed out to sea as torrential rain hits Greece, sparking killer floods as people are ordered off the streets
- One man has died following the floods and other is missing, authorities reported
- READ: Madrid’s metro system is flooded as city is hit by worst rainfall since 1972
This is the shocking moment a car is washed out to sea in Greece after torrential rain hit the country, causing severe flooding and people to be ordered off the streets.
Footage shows a car being swept away as huge rolling waves crash into the pier in Agios Ioannis, a village on the east side of the mainland.
Residents in the central town of Volos and the nearby mountain region of Pilion have been told to not leave their homes as a severe storm hit the area, turning streets into flooded torrents.
The ban, which covers all except emergency services and roadside assistance vehicles, will remain in place until the storm subsides, police said.
One man was killed in Volos when a wall buckled and fell on him, while another man was reported missing, believed to have been swept away by floodwaters, firefighters said earlier today.
Footage shows a car being swept away as huge rolling waves crash into the pier in Agios Ioannis
Cars are pictured battling rising water as people wade through it in the city of Volos
Floodwaters submerge a car and surrounding houses in Milina village, Pilion region, central Greece
Authorities also sent push alerts to cellphones in several other areas of central Greece, the Sporades island chain and the island of Evia, warning people to limit their movements outdoors due to the storm.
Government spokesman Yannis Artopios told public broadcaster ERT: ‘Storms and heavy rains were hitting Tuesday.
‘The basement of Volos hospital was flooded and firefighters are in the process of pumping out the water,’ Mr Artopios said.
Greece’s weather service said the Pilion region was forecast to receive about 650-700 millimeters (25.5-27.5 inches) of rain over Tuesday and Wednesday, while 550-600 millimeters were forecast for the central Greek town of Karditsa.
The weather service noted that the average annual rainfall in the capital of Athens region is around 400 millimeters.
A man is pictured attemting to drive his motorbike through flood waters in Volos
A man is pictured clearing debris off the road following a flash flood in Volos
Pictured are fast flowing stream waters that have risen during a heavy storm in the city of Volos
The extreme weather comes on the heels of major wildfires that hit Greece over the past few weeks, with some burning for more than two weeks and destroying vast tracts of forest and farmland. More than 20 people were killed in the fires.
A massive blaze raging over the last two weeks destroyed swathes of the Dadia national park in the northern Evros region.
Artopios told AFP that the Dadia fire front, raging since 19 August, was ‘under control and no area was active’.
‘Firefighters are staying in position to survey the situation,’ he added.
Classified by experts as a ‘megafire’, the blaze raging in Dadia destroyed more than 81,000 hectares (200,155 acres) of the forested area, protected by the European agency Natura 2000.
The devastation in Dadia accounts for almost half the total area burned by wildfires in Greece since the start of the summer, according to the European climate service Copernicus.
Like several Mediterranean countries, Greece faces fierce wildfires every summer, which this year left 26 people dead and at least 150,000 hectares burned.
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