Dutch tourist found dead on Greek island and 4 other foreign tourists missing on 3 islands

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A missing Dutch tourist was found dead on the eastern Greek island of Samos early Saturday morning, local media reported. It is the latest in a series of cases of tourists dying or going missing on the Greek islands. Some, if not all, had set out on hikes in sweltering heat.

Dr. Michael Mosley, a well-known British television presenter and author, was found dead on the island of Symi last Sunday. A coroner concluded that he had died the previous Wednesday, shortly after embarking on a hike through difficult, rocky terrain.

Like Symi, Samos is located very close to the Turkish coast.

The body of the 74-year-old Dutch tourist was found by a fire service drone, lying face down in a ravine about 300 meters from where he was last seen on Sunday, struggling to walk in the scorching heat.

Authorities were still searching for four people who had been reported missing in recent days.

On Friday, two French tourists were reported missing on Sikinos, a relatively remote Cycladic island in the Aegean Sea with fewer than 400 permanent residents.

The two women, aged 73 and 64, had left their respective hotels to meet.

A 70-year-old American tourist was reported missing on Thursday on the small island of Mathraki in northwestern Greece by his host, a Greek-American friend. The tourist was last seen on Tuesday in a cafe with two female tourists who have since left the island.

Mathraki, a 3.9 square kilometer, densely forested island with 100 inhabitants, lies west of the more popular island of Corfu. According to media reports, police and firefighters were unable to reach the island to search for the missing person until Saturday afternoon due to strong winds.

On the island of Amorgos, authorities were still searching for a 59-year-old tourist who had been reported missing since Tuesday when he went on a solo hike in the heat.

US media identified the missing tourist as retired Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Albert Calibet of Hermosa Beach, California.

Amorgos, the easternmost of the Cyclades islands, is a rocky island of 122 square kilometers with a population of less than 2,000. A few years ago, the island recorded a record number of visitors of over 100,000.

Some media commentaries have particularly highlighted the need to alert tourists to the dangers of hiking in hot weather.

Across Greece, temperatures on Saturday were more than 10 degrees Celsius lower than on Thursday, when they peaked at almost 45 degrees Celsius. They are expected to rise again from Sunday, but not to heatwave levels.

Demetris Nellas, Associated Press