Tourists flee for their lives after rock collapses at popular beach
Tourists at a popular Greek Island beach have been sent fleeing in terror afterpart of a cliff face broke away and came crashing down on those relaxing below.
Video footage uploaded on the website of Greek newspaper Proto Thema showed bathers running in panic as a large part of a cliff peeled off the rockwall and tumbled down at a point close to the sandy shore at Navagio beach in the island of Zakynthos.
At least seven people were injured and multiple small vessels overturned from the force of the fall that caused high waves, witnesses told authorities.
Their injuries were not life-threatening, fire brigade and coast guard officials said.
There were no people missing but authorities had air and sea assets in the area and were conducting a search as a precaution, in case people were trapped under the rocks, one official said.
“So far, we haven’t found any trapped people but we will continue searching,” a fire brigade official said.
One of the Ionian island’s main attractions, Navagio has a shipwreck on the shore and is surrounded by steep cliffs. It can only be reached by boat.
A Czech woman suffered back injuries and was transferred to hospital, a coast official said.
Another six people, inluding two children, had received treatment for minor injuries, a hospital official in Zakynthos told Reuters.
Zakynthos is also known as Zante in Western Europe.
