Fierce storm hits Greece, 6 killed, dozens injured

Six tourists have been killed and dozens of people injured in a fierce storm in northern Greece, authorities have said.

Strong winds and hail hit the Halkidiki region near the city of Thessaloniki late on Wednesday.

Charalambos Steriadis, the head of civil protection in northern Greece, said: “It was an unprecedented phenomenon. Six tourists were killed and at least 30 people were injured during this cyclone.”

The freak storm only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was enough to overturn cars, uproot trees and balcony railings and cause mudslides.

Officials have declared a state of emergency. The storm overturned and ripped open a caravan occupied by a Czech family, killing an elderly couple and injuring their son and grandson.

Elsewhere in the region, a Russian man and his son were killed by a falling tree, and a woman from Romania and her child died when the roof of a restaurant caved in while dozens of people were dining, police said.

According to port police, a fisherman in his sixties was also missing.

At least 140 rescue workers were involved in the operation, emergency chief Vassilis Varthakoyannis said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who took over Sunday after general elections, cancelled his meetings to address the disaster, his office said.

The storms came after temperatures in Greece soared to 37 degrees centigrade (98 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past two days.

The Greek national observatory said it had recorded over 5,000 lightning bolts around the country on Wednesday evening.