Heavy snowfall on Monday January 24 caused the suspension of operations at Istanbul International Airport, the busiest in Europe in 2021, while in Greece hundreds of motorists were trapped for several hours on Athens ring road.
Read alsoTravel: snow or winter sun, which destination for the holidays?
Flights to Istanbul were initially scheduled to resume Monday at 6:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT) but after assessing the situation, the management of "
Istanbul Havalimani
" postponed the resumption of its operations until midnight (9:00 p.m. GMT) at best, it said. AFP an airport official who declined to be named.
New heavy snowfalls are expected Monday evening in Istanbul where the prefecture warned the population, inviting them to give up taking the road.
On Monday, heavy snowfall occurred in Istanbul.
UMIT BEKTAS / REUTERS
“Exceptional conditions”
In a message posted on Twitter, the general management of civil airports explained that “
exceptional conditions
” due to snowfall accompanied by strong winds reduced visibility on the runways.
For its part, the national company Turkish Airlines preferred to cancel all of its flights, both departing and arriving from Istanbul Havalimani, until 4:00 a.m. Tuesday (01:00 a.m. GMT) for "
the safety of its passengers
", said she warned on Twitter.
Read alsoEastern United States hit by winter storm, blizzard alert in Canada
A spokesperson also announced the collapse of one of the company's cargo terminals under the weight of snow at the international airport.
There were no casualties in the incident, he said.
Istanbul's second airport, Sabiha Gokcen, located on the Asian side of Istanbul, was operating normally despite several announced delays.
Snow began to fall over the weekend over most of Turkey, doubling in intensity overnight from Saturday to Sunday and further heavy snowfall is expected in the evening.
Abandoned cars in the middle of the road
In central Greece and on the islands of the Aegean Sea, a heavy snowstorm hit Monday, mainly affecting Attica, the Athens region, causing chaos in the Greek capital.
Hundreds of motorists were trapped for more than six hours in their vehicles on the Attiki Odos ring road that connects east to west Athens, while huge traffic jams disrupted traffic on other Main highways.
The archaeological site of the snow-capped Acropolis.
ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS / REUTERS
The Parthenon has put on its white mantle.
ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS / REUTERS
While the temperature was 0° Celsius, many furious motorists called radio stations to protest and others abandoned their cars in the middle of the snow-covered road. "
When entering Attiki Odos, I asked the toll employees if chains were necessary, they replied that there was no problem
", indignantly a driver, blocked for more of four hours, with the radio Skaï. In the early evening, the army as well as firefighters and the police undertook an operation to free the hundreds of people trapped in their vehicles.
In a televised address alongside Attica prefect Giorgos Patoulis and police and meteorologist officials, Civil Protection and Climate Change Minister Christos Stylianides "
apologised
" for the problems at Attiki Odos.
He attributed the responsibility to the management company of the device which "
did not succeed in leaving open this very busy axis
".
"
If the company had acted correctly, we wouldn't have had this problem
," said the minister.
Read alsoA mayor prohibits snowfall by municipal decree
Heavy traffic jams also occurred on other avenues in central Athens where schools and parliament closed on Monday.
Besides Athens, the cold spell with heavy snowfall also hit the southern island of Crete and the Cyclades islands as well as the island of Euboea, north of Athens, already ravaged by fires this summer.
Temperatures have dropped to -14° in some parts of Greece, causing power cuts and interrupting traffic on the roads.
Heavy traffic jams also occurred on other avenues in central Athens.
STELIOS MISINAS / REUTERS
“
It is an extreme situation for our country,
” commented Christos Zerefos, a professor of atmospheric physics, on the public television channel ERT.
With snowfall expected to continue on Tuesday, the Greek authorities announced the "
suspension
" of the operation of private and public services for Tuesday with the exception of the police, firefighters and hospitals.