Schools shut on Greek islands after heavy rainstorms flood roads

1/4/2025 19:10

Schools and kindergartens were closed on several Greek islands including Paros and Mykonos on Tuesday after severe weather brought torrential rain, flooding and hailstorms to the Aegean Sea.



Authorities in Paros were struggling to remove vehicles stranded by the muddy waters after torrential rain swept through the island, a popular tourist spot in the summer, late on Monday.



"Roads have been damaged and we need help with more machines so that we can clear the streets," Paros' mayor Costas Bizas told public broadcaster ERT. "All this catastrophe happened in two hours."



The severe weather continued until the early hours of the morning, blanketing grasslands in nearby Mykonos with white balls of ice and prompting civil protection authorities to order the closure of schools there and on other islands, including Syros, Symi, Kalymnos and Kos.