An American tourist who was reported missing on a Greek island was found dead on a beach on Sunday, authorities said, becoming the third person to die amid scorching heat in the Mediterranean country.
The man, whose identity has yet to be released, has been missing from the small island of Matlaki since he was last seen on June 11, when temperatures reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
“There is a common pattern: they had all gone hiking in high temperatures,” South Aegean police spokesman Petros Vasilakis told Reuters.
Pictures published by Enimerosi, a news agency based on the neighbouring, larger island of Corfu, showed emergency workers, including a coroner, gathering along the remote, rocky beach where the man’s body was found.
A coroner spoke to the media, saying there were signs of drowning. A police official told Reuters the man had been taken to Corfu where an autopsy would be carried out.
The man’s body was found near the old port of Matraki, a wooded 1.2-square-mile island off Greece’s western coast, just south of the Albanian border, Enimeros newspaper reported.
Dead in Greek Islands: Missing British TV doctor Michael Mosley found dead
Three other tourists missing in Greece
Sunday’s discovery on the island of Matraki came amid a wave of disappearances and deaths in Greece this month as extreme heat has forced the closure of schools and the ruins of the ancient Acropolis.
As of Monday, three other tourists had been reported missing, all of whom had last been seen on Greek islands.
Two French women were reported missing on Friday off the island of Sikinos, off the southeast coast of Greece in the Aegean Sea. The pair, aged 64 and 73, had planned to meet after leaving their respective hotels, according to the Associated Press.
On the nearby island of Amorgos, American Albert Carivet from California was reported missing on Tuesday, according to NBC News. The 59-year-old Los Angeles County deputy sheriff had been hiking alone in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
On Saturday, a 74-year-old Dutch tourist was found dead in a ravine on the island of Samos, and on June 9, 67-year-old British television personality Michael Mosley was found dead on the island of Symi.
Article contributed by Reuters
