ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Heavy snowfall has covered the Acropolis and other ancient monuments in Athens and halted vaccination against COVID-19 in the Greek capital on Tuesday, as many services across the country were halted.
The snow, an unusual sight in the city of more than 3 million residents, also stopped most public transportation services, while fallen trees caused blackouts in several mountain suburbs.
Sections of Greece’s main road were also closed and most ferry services to the islands were canceled and flights from regional airports to Athens were interrupted.
Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis said the service had received more than 600 calls for assistance in Greater Athens.
“The calls mainly concerned felled trees and transporting people trapped in vehicles to a safe place, but also transporting patients on kidney dialysis for treatment,” he told state television.
“Vaccines have been postponed, but we have helped transport doctors and medical staff where they are needed and we have helped electrical technicians reach damaged electrical pylons in areas where access was difficult,” he said.
Water and electricity outages were also reported in central Greece and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was meeting with emergency response leaders to help residents of blackouts and snow-cut villages.
Snow is frequent in the mountains of Greece and in the north of the country, but much rarer in the capital, especially heavy snow. On the balconies and streets, some Athenians cautiously went outside, taking photographs.
The snow came when Athens and several other parts of Greece remain blocked due to a recent increase in coronavirus infections. The closure has closed schools, most stores and kept residents inside during a night curfew.
Some kids skipped online classes Tuesday to play in the snow.
Outside parliament, in the city center, orange snowplows cleared the streets of ice and snow, while presidential guards, dressed in traditional pleated kilts and pompom-tipped shoes, received heavy wool coats to deal with the snow. cold.
The cold, which has already caused snowstorms in much of Europe, kept Girona temperatures in Athens on Tuesday, but was expected to rise sharply with highs of 14 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit) forecast for Thursday. ___ Follow Becatoros at https://twitter.com/ElenaBec and Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos ___ Thanassis Stavrakis, Petros Giannakouris and Srdjan Nedeljkovic have contributed to Athens.