A 33-year-old hiker was killed on Wednesday after a rocks fell from a sudden squall affecting the Samaria Gorge on Crete.
According to local media reports, the woman, a Ukrainian national residing in Germany, had nearly reached the southern exit of the gorge at the Agia Roumeli coastal village, when she was injured by a landslide following a rain storm. She died of bleeding.
Emergency rescue units rushed to the site, one of the most popular national parks in Greece, to evacuate other tourists who were also hiking through the gorge.
“Today, after 1:30 p.m., there was a strong downpour which caused a landslide. A rock hit a tree and fell on a German tourist. Despite the efforts of a medical doctor who was also a tourist hiking the gorge, the woman succumbed to hemorrhage. The incident was due to the rain,” said Alkiviadis Pentarakis, a supervisor of the National Park of Samaria, in an interview to MEGA television.
According to local media reports, rescue operations are now focused on evacuating the remaining hikers.
The Samaria Gorge is one of Crete’s main tourist attractions with hundreds of people hiking the narrow riverine canyon every day, mainly in the summer. The hike takes about six to seven hours.
Pentarakis said authorities had not closed the gorge because they were never warned of the imminent storm.
