ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Heavy snowfall has swept the Acropolis and other ancient monuments in Athens and halted COVID-19 vaccinations in the Greek capital on Tuesday as the weather halted many services across the country.
As Western Europe gained some respite from the winter weather, temperatures in the southeast of the continent dropped, and winter storms also plagued Turkey.
The snow, an unusual sight in Athens, a city of more than 3 million inhabitants, also halted most public transport services, while falling trees caused landslides in several suburbs of the mountain slopes.
Snow occurs frequently in the mountains of Greece and in the north of the country, but much rarer in the capital. Some Athenians cautiously came outside and took pictures on balconies and in the streets.
The snow came when Athens and several other parts of Greece remained in the lock to combat coronavirus infections. Schools and most shops are closed, and residents must stay indoors during a night clock.
Some kids skipped online classes Tuesday to play in the snow. Adults also went to play, with some skis they could use on the hilly slopes of the capital. One man was shot along Pnyx Hill in downtown Athens, near the Acropolis.
Norwegian Ambassador Frode Overland Andersen tweeted a video in which he and his teenage daughter skied down a hill in the suburb of Filothei.
“Accepted challenge,” he wrote after a friend in Oslo challenged him to prove that it is really possible to ski in Athens.
“It was the best day at my home office so far during the exclusion,” the ambassador told The Associated Press. “Unfortunately, my skis got quite a hard pack of beats, so I will accrue and prepare for next season.”
Outside the parliament building, orange-colored snowplows cleared the streets of ice and snow, while presidential guards, dressed in traditional pleated kilts and pompom-toed shoes, found heavy woolen coats.
The cold, which has already caused snowstorms in much of Europe, kept freezing in Athens on Tuesday, but is expected to suddenly peak at 14 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit). In neighboring Turkey, heavy snow and blizzards forced the closure of a highway in northwestern Turkey. About 600 vehicles were stranded on a nine-kilometer stretch of the snow-covered road, and another 800 vehicles were stranded elsewhere, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.
Sections of Greece’s highway were also closed on Tuesday and most ferry services to the islands were canceled, while flights from regional airports to Athens were suspended.
Greek fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis said the service had received more than 600 calls for help in Athens.
“The calls mainly concern sawn-off trees and the transportation of people trapped in their vehicles to a safe place, but also to transport kidney dialysis patients to receive treatment,” he told state TV.
“Vaccinations have been postponed, but we have helped transport doctors and medical staff to where they are needed, and we have helped power technicians find damaged electricity pylons in areas where access was difficult,” Vathrakoyiannis said.
Power outages and water disruptions have also been reported in Central Greece. Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with emergency response leaders to help residents in darkened areas and towns cut off by the snow.
“We obviously recommend that a lot of care be taken with all movements; all unnecessary movement should be avoided,” Mitsotakis said after the meeting, adding that authorities are doing everything in their power to keep the roads open and to power in areas without restoring electricity.
“I think we will all show patience if we deal with an unprecedented phenomenon,” he added. ___ Follow Becatoros at https://twitter.com/ElenaBec and Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos ___ Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey and Thanassis Stavrakis, Petros Giannakouris and Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Athens contributed.