Greece heatwave news 2024: Death toll rises to five as locals fear tourists are ‘underestimating’ record temperatures

A 55-year-old American was found dead on the Greek island of Mathraki, police said Monday, the fifth death of a tourist in recent weeks following a period of unusually hot weather.

Police did not disclose the identity of the dead American whose body was found near a beach on Mathraki on Sunday. He was transferred to the island of Corfu where an autopsy will be performed, a police official told Reuters.

On Saturday, a 74-year-old Dutch tourist was found dead on the island of Samos, and on June 5, two hikers were found dead on Crete. Rescue teams also searched for two French women aged 73 and 64 on the island of Sikinos and a 59-year-old US police officer on Amorgos.

Earlier this month, just as the holiday season began on Greece’s remote beaches, ancient sites and mountain trails, temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

“There is a common pattern – they all went hiking in high temperatures,” Petros Vassilakis, police spokesman for the South Aegean, told Reuters.

Greece continues to struggle with extreme heat, with the popular holiday destination recording a number of deaths among tourists hiking in high temperatures.

The Met Office has predicted temperatures of 35 °C for Athens today, and similar temperatures are expected on other islands.

The heat is a concern as June is considered spring in the region and locals are worried about what July and August might bring.

Last week, temperatures regularly rose above 40 degrees Celsius, and in some regions even reached 45 degrees Celsius. Popular tourist destinations such as the Acropolis in Athens were therefore closed.

According to reports, frustration among the Greek population with tourists “underestimating” the extreme heat has grown after the deaths of five holidaymakers were confirmed.

A documentary filmmaker living in Greece told i that tourists in Athens don’t realise how intense the heat is. She often sees tourists hiking in temperatures where locals wouldn’t exercise.

“There is frustration among the locals (about British tourists), but they also feel very sorry, very sad. They don’t want there to be any deaths (of tourists) – it’s bad for them as a destination too,” she said.

Eric Albert Calibet, 59 – known to friends as Albert – was vacationing on the island but was reported missing by a friend on Tuesday afternoon.

According to local media reports, Calibet set out on the challenging four-hour hike from Aegiali to Katapola at around 7am. The friend reported the disappearance to Amorgos police after he did not return eight hours later. Authorities were unable to contact Calibet on either of his two mobile phones.

“I am completely disgusted by the way we have been treated,” Debbie Leshane told the New York Post on Monday.

“Albert has been a first responder since he was 25. Everyone deserves to be wanted. But he really deserves it,” Leshane said in a phone call from the island.

The Athens news agency reported that Toby Sheets was staying with a Greek-American friend on Mathraki. The body was taken to Corfu for an autopsy. An official cause of death has not yet been determined, the agency said.

Sheets trained alone from 1994 to 1999, and for a brief period in 2004, he won 46 of 268 races for $569,442 in prize money. During his career under Asmussen, he was regularly responsible for the day-to-day operations of the trainer’s New York stable.

The tourist was last seen on Tuesday in a café accompanied by two female tourists who have since left the island.

Mathraki has 100 inhabitants and is a 3.9 square kilometer, densely forested island west of the more famous island of Corfu.

This was 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 trekking trips in very hot temperatures.

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

According to ABC News, a coroner was sent to Mathraki on Sunday to conduct a preliminary investigation after Toby Sheets was found dead.

The body is to be transported to nearby Corfu, where the autopsy will be performed.

Accordingly Athens News AgencySheets came to Mathraki to spend some vacation with a Greek-American friend. Mathraki has only 100 residents and is a densely forested island with an area of ​​1.2 square miles.

The Times reported that a friend called police after finding the door to Sheets’ house open and the lights and air conditioning on.

The body of 55-year-old Toby Sheets was found on a beach after he disappeared from a tavern on a remote Greek island.

The deputy mayor of Mathraki, Spyros Argyros, told the New York Times that the place where Sheets was found had already been searched before.

He said: “He was found in the surf on the beach in a spot that had already been searched, so it appears he was washed out of the sea in the last 24 hours.”

Steve Asmussen is North America’s leading trainer with over 10,500 successes and victories in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes and the Dubai World Cup.

Asmussen paid tribute to him, telling TDN: “Toby was part of our stable for many years, including our Belmont Stakes win with Creator and also his expert handling of Haynesfield. He will be sorely missed by his family and many friends.”

Tributes for the assistant of record-breaking horse trainer Steve Asmussen, who was found dead on a beach in the Greek islands.

The family of 55-year-old Toby Sheets confirmed to TDN that he was the tourist whose body was found on the small island of Mathraki west of Corfu.

“He died in Greece,” said Greg Sheets. “That’s all we know at the moment. The family is trying to figure out what happened.”

Sheets was reported missing on Thursday by his host, a Greek-American friend, 48 hours after he was seen in a cafe with two tourists who have since left the island.

His body was sent for autopsy.

The search continues for two French tourists aged 64 and 73 who disappeared while walking on the island of Sikinos.

However, the police do not know exactly where they went and what their goal was.

Petros Vasilakis, head of the South Aegean Police press office, told CNN that one of the women sent an emergency message to the guesthouse where she was staying.

The person who received the message then raised the alarm.