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Six people have died or gone missing in nine days in the Greek island world.
All tourists are now being warned about the extreme heat that has swept across the country.
– I have never been involved in anything like this, says a police officer who participates in the rescue efforts.
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Health guru Michael Mosley, 67, the man behind the 5:2 diet, disappeared during an afternoon walk on the Greek island of Symi on June 6.
A few days later, he was found dead near the marina in Pedi village.
Even then, there was a heat warning for extreme temperatures over Greece and its islands.
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full screen Michael Mosley was 67 years old. Photo: Jimmy Wixtröm
Six dead or gone
Since then it has only gotten worse.
Over nine days, a total of six tourists, including Mosley, have been found dead or missing on various islands in Greece.
All are believed to have ignored the authorities’ warnings and gone for walks or hikes in the terrain in the insane heat.
The search efforts are coordinated from the island of Syros.
There is concern that foreign tourists may not receive sufficient information about the risks of the ongoing heat wave.
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full screen Beach life at Amorgos where a search effort is underway. Photo: Leif R Jansson/TT/Archivbild
Never seen anything like it
– In all my years in the police supervising these types of efforts, I have never witnessed anything like this, says a responsible police officer to The Guardian.
– But we have to take into account that this has been the hottest June ever and that these people decided to go hiking. We can’t arrest someone for deciding to go for a walk and we can’t force them to stay indoors. One can only hope that tourists take their wits with them when they go on holiday.
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full screen A large rescue effort was looking for a 74-year-old tourist on Samos. After almost a week, he was found dead. Photo: Hellenic Rescue Team
In addition to Mosley, a 74-year-old Dutch man was found dead on the island of Samos on Saturday after being missing for almost a week.
He was found by a drone after falling into a ravine.
Looking for French women
On Sunday, a 70-year-old American man was found on a hard-to-reach beach on the island of Nisí Mathráki. He had been missing for three days.
Now a massive rescue operation is underway to find three more tourists, two French women and an American man, who disappeared while hiking on the islands of Sikinos and Amorgos respectively.
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full screenMichael Mosley was found dead after being missing on the island of Symi for several days. Photo: Panormitis Chatzigiannakis / AP
The operation includes search dogs, drones and helicopters.
– Volunteers have arrived from Santorini, firefighters, the police and a specially trained dog are participating in the search, but the terrain is mountainous and full of ravines. The effort is huge, but the area where they disappeared is difficult to access and sadly we have not found them, says Vassilis Marakis, mayor of Sikinos where the French women, aged 73 and 64, disappeared, to The Guardian.
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full screen Greek emergency services on Symi after diet guru found dead. Photo: Antonis Mystiloglou / AP
“Very concerned”
He also believes that it is “abnormally hot”.
– It was extremely hot on Friday when they disappeared. We had heard of such incidents in other islands and now it has happened here. Yesterday we even had a Coast Guard boat patrolling our coast. I’m not going to hide that I’m very worried, says Marakis to The Guardian.
The missing American is a 59-year-old former Los Angeles sheriff who never returned from a four-hour hike in 40-degree heat nearly a week ago.
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full screen The heat wave is plaguing Greece. Here, tourists seek shade in Athens in the 40-degree heat. Photo: Petros Giannakouris / AP