Volvi

The owners of a complex of rented rooms, where refugees and migrants were accommodated, in Vrasna, Thessaloniki, were handed a suspended 2.5-year prison sentence over the death in April 2019 of a 4-year-old refugee boy who was crushed while playing next to a sliding metal door.

A wildfire broke out in a forest near lake Volvi, in the Halkidiki area in northern Greece, on Thursday.  

Some 37 firefighters with 16 vehicles have been dispatched to the area. One aircraft and one helicopter are also assisting from the air. 

A message from 112 was sent to local residents alerting them about the fire. 

A 27-year-old individual involved in migrant smuggling was apprehended after crashing a van carrying seven undocumented migrants. The incident took place on a Sunday afternoon in the Volvi municipality, situated on the outskirts of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. No injuries were reported.

Greece was condemned by the European Court of Justice on Thursday for failing to set conservation targets for protected habitats, a process that should have been completed by 2012.

The latest rebuke is indicative of the country's reluctance to take substantial environmental protection measures over the past decade.

Authorities in the municipality of Volvi, east of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, have warned dozens of residents against the consumption of tap water after finding high levels of uranium during an annual quality assessment.

The government's plan to house migrants and refugees in hotels on the mainland as part of ongoing efforts to relieve pressure on camps on the islands appears to have hit a hurdle after several hoteliers refused to participate in the housing program drafted by the Citizens Protection Ministry and opposition from local residents.

Authorities were forced to abandon plans to house about 400 refugees in a small seaside village in northern Greece on Tuesday night, after residents vehemently opposed their settlement in local hotels.

The refugees, who had been transferred from an overcrowded camp in Samos to the mainland, travelled with eight buses to the village of Vrasna, northeast of Thessaloniki.

Thousands of freshwater fish, mostly carp, have been found dead around Lake Koroneia, where the water level has fallen dramatically to just 60-80 cm.

Police said Monday that they rescued 19 undocumented Bangladeshi and Pakistani migrants who were being held for ransom by a people smuggling gang in a warehouse in Volvi, northern Greece.
One of the gang members, a 26-year-old Pakistani national, was arrested during the police operation, which took place on Saturday. An undisclosed number of members are still at large.

With just over 60 percent of votes counted on Monday morning, the conservative New Democracy-backed candidate for Thessaloniki mayor Nikos Tachiaos was projected to secure 22.56 percent while Constantinos Zervas and Giorgos Orphanos fought it out for second place with 14.76 percent and 14.41 percent respectively ahead of the runoff next weekend.