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

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

Police did not share 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 carried out, a police official told Reuters.

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

Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) earlier this month, just as the holiday season began across Greece’s remote beaches, ancient sites and mountain trails.

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

Greece is continuing to battle with extreme heat as the popular holiday destination sees a string of deaths among tourists hiking in high temperatures.

In Athens, the Met Office has forecasted temperatures of 35C today as other islands reach similar temperatures.

The heat is alarming as June is considered Spring in the region and locals are concerned for what July and August may hold.

Last week, temperatures regularly soared above 40C with some temperatures reaching as high as 45C in some areas. Popular tourist destinations such as the Acropolis in Athens were closed as a result.

Greek locals are reportedly growing frustrated with tourists “underestimating” the extreme heat as five holidaymakers are confirmed dead.

A documentary filmmaker living in Greece told the i that tourists in Athens don’t know the intensity of the heat and said she often sees tourists hiking in temperatures that locals wouldn’t do exercise in.

“There is a sense of frustration among locals [at British tourists] but also they feel very sorry, very sad. They do not want [tourists’ deaths] to happen – it is also bad for them as a tourist destination,” she said.

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

Calibet left for the challenging four-hour hike, from Aegiali to Katapola around 7am, according to local outlets. The friend reported the disappearance to Amorgos police after he had not returned eight hours later. Authorities have not been able to contact Calibet via either of his two cell phones.

“I’m totally disgusted with the way we’ve been treated,” Debbie Leshane told The New York Post on Monday.

“Albert has been a first responder since he was 25 years old. Everybody deserves to be searched for. But he really, honestly deserves it,” Leshane said in a call from the island.

The Athens News Agency said that Toby Sheets was staying with a Greek-American friend on Mathraki. The body was transported to Corfu for an autopsy. An official cause of death had not been determined, according to the agency.

Sheets trained on his own from 1994-1999 and for a brief time in 2004 in which he won 46 races from 268 starts for purse earnings of $569,442. During his career under Asmussen, he was regularly placed in charge of the day-to-day operations for the trainer’s New York stable.

The tourist had last been seen Tuesday at a cafe in the company of two female tourists who have since left the island.

Mathraki, which has a population of 100, is a 3.9-square-kilometer (1.2-square-mile) heavily wooded island, west of the better-known island of Corfu.

This was the latest in a string of recent cases in which tourists on the Greek islands have died or gone missing. Some, if not all, had set out on hikes 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 (330 yards) from the spot where he was last observed last Sunday, walking with some difficulty in the blistering heat.

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

The body was to be taken to nearby Corfu, where the autopsy will be performed.

According to Athens News Agency, Sheets came to Mathraki to spend some vacation time with a Greek American friend. Mathraki has a population of just 100 and is a heavily wooded island covering 1.2 square miles.

The Times reported that a friend called police after the door to Sheets’s home was found open, with the lights and air conditioning on.

The body of Toby Sheets, 55, was found on a beach after vanishing from a taverna on a remote Greek island.

Mathraki’s deputy mayor, Spyros Argyros, told the New York Times that the place where Sheets was found had previously been searched.

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

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

Paying tribute, Asmussen told the TDN: “Toby was part of our stable for many years, including our Belmont Stakes win with Creator, as well as his expert handling of Haynesfield among others. He will be deeply missed by his family and many friends.

Tributes to assistant to record-breaking horse trainer Steve Asmussen has been found dead washed up on a beach in the Greek islands.

The family of Toby Sheets, 55, confirmed to the TDN, that he was the tourist whose body was found on the tiny island of Mathraki, west of Corfu.

“He did pass away in Greece,” said Greg Sheets. “As of right now, that’s all we know. The family is trying to figure out what happened.”

Sheets had been reported missing on Thursday by his host, a Greek-American friend, 48 hours after being seen at a cafe with two female tourists who have since left the island.

His body has been taken for a postmortem examination to be carried out.

The search is continuing for two French tourists, aged 64 and 73 years old, who went missing during a walk on the island of Sikinos.

But police do not know exactly where they were walking and what their intended destination was.

Petros Vasilakis, head of the Southern Aegean Police press office, told CNN one of the women sent a message of distress to the guest house where she was staying.

The person who received the message then raised the alarm.