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A missing Dutch tourist was found dead on the eastern Greek island of Samos early Saturday, local media reported, the latest in a series of tourists killed and missing on Greek islands, some, but not all, of whom had been out hiking in scorching heat.
Two Americans and two French tourists have also been reported missing recently.
Well-known British television presenter and author Dr Michael Mosley was found dead on the island of Symi last Sunday. The coroner determined he died the previous Wednesday, shortly after hiking through rugged, rocky terrain.
Samos, like Symi, is located very close to the Turkish coast.
The body of the 74-year-old Dutch tourist was found by a firefighters drone lying face down in a ravine about 300 metres (330 yards) from where he was last seen on Sunday, having struggled to walk in the scorching heat.
Temperatures across Greece on Saturday were more than 10 degrees cooler than on Thursday, when highs reached nearly 45C. Temperatures are expected to rise again from Sunday, but will not reach heatwave levels.
Authorities are continuing to search for four people who were reported missing in recent days.
British television presenter Dr. Michael Mosley was found dead on the island of Symi last weekend (AP)
Two French tourists were reported missing on Friday from Sikinos, a relatively remote Cyclades island in the Aegean Sea with a permanent population of fewer than 400 people.
The two women, aged 73 and 64, left their respective hotels to meet.
A 70-year-old American tourist was reported missing Thursday on the small northwestern Greek island of Matraki by his Greek-American host friend. He was last seen at a cafe on Tuesday with two female tourists who have since left the island.
When the friend returned home on Thursday, he found the front door open, the lights and air conditioning on, but his friend was gone and his identification and travel documents were gone.
Matraki is a wooded island with a population of 100 people and an area of 3.9 square kilometres (1.2 square miles) located west of the better known island of Corfu.
As Matraki has no police or coastguard station, authorities on Corfu were called in to help with the search, but strong winds had prevented police and firefighters from reaching the island as of Saturday afternoon.
Well-known British television presenter and author Dr Michael Mosley was found dead on the island of Symi last Sunday (BBC).
Searchers combed the waters around the island on Thursday but called off the search on Friday due to rough weather.
On the island of Amorgos, authorities are continuing to search for a 59-year-old tourist who has been missing since Tuesday, when he went hiking alone in extreme heat. US media have identified the missing tourist as Albert Carivet, a retired Los Angeles County deputy sheriff from Hermosa Beach, California.
Amorgos, the easternmost of the Cyclades, is a rocky island covering 122 square kilometers (47 square miles) with fewer than 2,000 residents. A few years ago, the number of tourists visiting the island hit a record high of more than 100,000.
“He’s been coming here for 10 years and walks all over Amorgos so it’s unlikely he got lost,” Popi Despotidi, the island’s deputy mayor for tourism, told CNN.
Carivet retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2018.
“He knows this road, he knows this island,” Robin Leon, a friend of the Carivet family, told NBC News.
“The mayor knows Albert, everyone in the cafes knows Albert, the people on the island know Albert. Everyone loves Albert,” Leon added.
Amorgos city authorities posted on Facebook that the 59-year-old man was following the road from the Asfontirite region towards the village of Katapola. He was wearing Bermuda shorts and a black shirt when he went missing.
“Every hour that passes it gets sadder,” Carivet’s sister-in-law, Sandrine Catreit, told NBC News.
Some media reports have suggested that tourists need to be informed of the dangers of going hiking in extreme heat.
