Artemida, Attica

The lack of proper planning on the part of the state for the removal of waste and branches cleared from private plots of land has led to the creation of hundreds of potential fire sources around the country.

An 18-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were killed on Thursday morning when their cars smashed into each other on the road linking Spata to Artemida, east of Athens.

The government is activating its confidential Artemis plan to tackle the Covid-19 virus, with the mobilization - possibly on Friday - of two new operational centers coordinated by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection, with a third in the process of being set up to have a supervisory role.

A man and a child view a display at the 'Treasures of Ancient Greece: Life, Myth and Heroes' exhibition at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis in the US. Co-organized by the Greek Culture Ministry, the exhibition includes 150 items taken from 20 major Greek museums and seeks to familiarize the American public, and children especially, with the achievements of ancient Greek civilization.

Rescuers arriving at the scene of a house fire at the seaside resort town of Artemida in east Attica on Thursday found a burnt body, the fire service said in a press release.

The statement said it was not yet clear whether the victim was a man or a woman.
Fifteen firemen with six vehicles were sent at the corner of Pindou and Athens streets to put out the blaze.

The Environment Ministry has given the go-ahead for the construction of a large biological waste treatment facility and sewage network which will serve the municipalities of Rafina-Pikermi and Spata-Artemida in eastern Attica.

A fifth person has been found dead in the sea off the coast of Artemida, about 6 nautical miles south of Rafina. He is described as a man aged in his mid-60s and is believed to have drowned while trying to flee the deadly fire that swept across Attica's eastern coast.

A Hellenic Navy frigate recovered the bodies of three women and a child in the same area earlier on Tuesday.

We woke up on Tuesday morning to the smell of smoke here in Artemida, a few kilometers south of tragedy-stricken Rafina. The sun is pale and the sky is almost as smoky as it was last night.

Seventy-one out of 323 beaches inspected by the Panhellenic Center for Ecological Research in the Greek capital's Attica region were found unfit for swimming, with low cleanliness scores going to popular spots like Loutsa, Oropos and Schinias.

Ferryboats were tied up at all three of the capital's main ports on Thursday as strong winds lashed many parts of the country.

There were no sailings from Piraeus, Rafina or Lavrio after the coast guard warned of winds in the Aegean Sea that reached as high as 9 on the Beaufort scale. The Perama-Salamina route remained unaffected, however, and sailings are taking place as scheduled.