Snow chaos in Greece and Turkey: Thousands of drivers are stuck on the highway
Created: 01/25/2022, 12:32 p.m
By: Martina Lippl
Weather chaos in Greece: In Athens, vehicles got stuck in the snow masses.
© Sotiris Dimitropoulos /imago
A heavy snowstorm swept over Greece.
Thousands of drivers had to spend the night in their vehicles.
Turkey is also struggling with snow masses.
Athens – snow masses paralyze Greece.
Most flights from the capital's airport have been cancelled.
Train services were temporarily suspended.
Travelers were stuck in train stations.
Thousands of drivers got stuck with their cars on a highway in Athens.
Greece: Military evacuates thousands of motorists
Around 1,200 cars were stuck on Tuesday morning, Greek media reports.
Some were trapped in their vehicles for up to 22 hours.
The military was deployed to get people out of their cars and put them in hotels.
More than 3,500 people had been evacuated by early Tuesday, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said.
At 10 a.m. this morning, 200 people and 100 cars were still snowed in on the Attiki Odos main artery in the Athens metropolitan area alone, the highway operator said.
Greece sinks into snow chaos
By Tuesday morning, 40 centimeters of snow had fallen at Athens Airport, meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann tweeted.
Some streets in Athens are completely closed to traffic.
In the center of the Greek capital, snow chains are necessary, the police said.
Snow chains are compulsory for trucks over 3.5 tons.
The storm named "Elpis" is expected to last until Wednesday.
The Greek weather service
meteo.gr reports
that there are occasional snowfalls in the east
.
The chaos on the highways in Greece was already announced on Monday afternoon.
Cars and trucks without winter tires or snow chains got stuck and couldn't go any further.
Clearing vehicles could no longer get through.
Winter tires are not compulsory in Greece - especially in the Athens area, it rarely snows in winter and if it does, then only lightly.
There were problems in other parts of the country too.
In many places, trees fell on power lines due to the snow load – electricity has not yet been restored everywhere.
For Tuesday, the government in the affected areas ordered most companies, shops and authorities to remain closed.
Snow in Turkey: Istanbul Airport extends flight stop
Heavy snowfall in Istanbul (Turkey).
© Hakan Akgun/imago
Numerous flights are also canceled in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul due to snowfall. The flight stop at the city's largest airport was initially extended until 1 p.m. local time (11 a.m. CET), the operating company announced on Twitter on Tuesday. The civil aviation authority also wrote that runways at Istanbul International Airport were still closed due to the weather conditions. The semi-public airline Turkish Airlines said that there were also failures at the smaller Sabiha Gokcen Airport at the other end of the city. The reason is a restriction on flights by the local authorities.
However, the snow-covered streets in Istanbul make for strange scenes.
A spectacular video is circulating on social networks.
In the clip, a man on skis apparently plows through the fresh snow in the metropolis on the Bosphorus.
Massive snowfall in Turkey: airport roof collapses
Because of snow and ice: driving ban imposed in Istanbul
Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya banned the use of private vehicles in the metropolis until 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
Clearing vehicles were used to clear roads of snow and ice.
According to media reports, numerous people had to spend the night in the car.
It also snowed in the tourism areas of Bodrum and Antalya.
According to the weather agency, further snowfall is expected in the Istanbul region and in Anatolia during the course of Tuesday.
(ml/dpa)
