Two French tourists have been missing since Friday June 14. Searches are underway in Sikinos, a small island in the Cyclades, to find these women aged 64 and 73.
They haven’t given any sign of life since Friday. Concern has spread to the small island of Sikonos, in the Cyclades, where two French tourists aged 64 and 73 are missing. A disappearance which occurred while Greece was suffocating under an unprecedentedly early heatwave.
· One last message sent Friday morning
The two missing French women, whose identity is not yet known, were staying in different hotels in Sikinos, a Cyclades island of 40 km² and which has only a little more than 200 inhabitants. The authorities believe that they could know each other, according to local media Cyclades24.
“We don’t even know if they went for a walk together or separately,” the mayor of Sikonos said on Sunday on the ANT1 television channel.
The last sign of life was Friday morning. As Vassilis Marakis recounted, one of the French tourists then sent a message to the owner of her accommodation. In it, she said she had tripped and wasn’t feeling well. A photo accompanying the message also shows her lying on the ground. “The day they went hiking, it was extremely hot,” said Vassilis Marakis.
· Update on research
Relying on the signal from this tourist’s cell phone, the authorities were only able to demarcate the area of her disappearance, in the south of Sikinos, where there are many beaches and hiking trails. However, they were not able to locate it with greater precision using the GPS signal. “Some trails on our island are mapped, but others are not,” said Vassilis Marakis.
Residents and firefighters quickly began to carry out searches and the island was combed “with boats and drones”, said the mayor of Sikonos. They have been supported since Sunday by a search and rescue team from the neighboring island of Santorini. It is made up of 11 people and two drones.
· A third tourist missing
In addition to the two French women who disappeared in Sikinos, research is also underway to find the trace of Albert Calibet in Amorgos, another Cyclades island. This 59-year-old American has been missing since last Tuesday. This retiree, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, went for a solo hike in very hot weather, reports CBS.
According to Calliope Despotidi, the deputy mayor of Amorgos, “Calibet is known to the locals” and he has been visiting the island regularly “for several years”.
· Three tourists dead in one week
Over the past week, three foreign tourists have been found dead on different Greek islands. The body of Michael Mosley, a British television star doctor, was the first to be found in Symi on Sunday June 9.
On Saturday, a Dutch tourist was found dead on the island of Samos. The next day, the body of a 55-year-old American man was discovered in Corfu. According to Athens News Agency, the fifty-year-old was on vacation in Mathraki and was last seen by residents in a cafe last Tuesday.
Most of these tourists had undertaken hikes during the heatwave in Greece last week. According to meteorologists, the country experienced the earliest heat wave on record. The mercury even exceeded 40°C in Athens, conditions which led to the Acropolis being closed to the public during the hottest hours of the day.
