Greece shuts Acropolis due to heatwave as flights suspended at Marseille Airport after wildfires
shut the Acropolis for several hours in the afternoon on Tuesday, as the Mediterranean country baked in its second major heatwave of the season, with temperatures set to soar as high as 41 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, flights scheduled at Marseille Airport have been suspended after a wildfire raged close to the southern
French
port city, local authorities said.
Last week, large parts of western Europe sweltered in a severe heatwave that left eight dead and triggered forest fires and health alerts across the region.
In Athens, temperatures were expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius, forcing authorities to close the Acropolis, its most visited ancient site, on a rocky hill offering barely any shade, at midday local time. The temporary closure was due to last until late afternoon.
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Defying the heat, some tourists visited the monument before it shut.
'It's extremely hot. So yeah, we had to take extra measures. We have little fans for the children. I have the hat, the glasses. We've been drinking lots of water,' said John Howell (58), a Scottish tourist.
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Europe's heatwave in pictures - Most of continent swelters as Ireland enjoys cooler conditions
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With hot air and humidity worsening conditions, authorities ordered some businesses in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, and other areas on the mainland and southern Peloponnese peninsula, to limit outdoor work for employees in the afternoon.
Builders, food delivery riders, couriers and shipyards workers are among those having to pause work from midday until 5pm to avoid heat stress, the labour ministry said.
In the south of France, the prefecture urged people in areas affected by the wildfires to stay indoors and off the roads on Tuesday.
With the fire approaching Marseille, the prefecture also advised residents in the northern area of the city to remain inside with doors and windows closed to prevent toxic smoke from entering their homes.
Boats moored at the Plage des Corbieres, in Marseille, France, on Tuesday, as smoke billows from a wildfire in the background. Photograph: Clement Mahoudeau/AFP
Live TV footage showed light smoke giving the sky over Marseille's old port a dusty aspect.
Some 168 firefighters, two helicopters and 68 engines were deployed to tackle the fire, which broke out near the town of Les Pennes-Mirabeau, with 350 hectares hit.
There have been no reports of casualties.
Marseille airport announced that the runway had been closed at around midday.
Several weeks of heatwaves combined with strong winds have increased the risk of wildfires in southern France, with several breaking out over the past couple of days.
Separately, Spanish authorities ordered more than 18,000 residents of the northeastern Tarragona province to remain indoors on Tuesday and several dozen were evacuated as a wildfire raged out of control, consuming almost 3,000 hectares of vegetation.
Large parts of
Spain
are on high alert for wildfires after the country experienced its hottest June on record. Two people died in a wildfire on July 1st in the region of Catalonia where Tarragona is located.
Large flames leap from the trees as a wildfire burns through forested areas near the towns of Xerta and Pauls in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain on Tuesday. Photograph:The latest fire broke out early on Monday in a remote area near the village of Pauls, where strong winds and rugged terrain have hampered firefighting efforts, authorities said. An emergency military unit was deployed early on Tuesday alongside more than 300 firefighters working in the area.
'Since midnight, firefighters have been battling the blaze with gusts of wind reaching up to 90 kilometres per hour,' Catalonia's regional firefighting service said, adding that the strong Mistral wind was expected to ease by the afternoon.
Overnight, fire engines raced the winding roads of the Pauls Mountains, surrounded by flames, as crews assessed and tried to contain the blaze.
Authorities said they had prevented the fire from spreading across the Ebro river, which would have worsened the situation. Approximately 30 per cent of the affected area lies within the Ports Natural Park, and officials are investigating the fire's origins. – Reuters/AP
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Irish Times
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- Irish Times
Heat wave advice: How to look after your pet, garden and family in the hot weather
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Irish Times
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Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
My French trip had no shortage of Beckett-style waiting, with Marseille Airport at 2.30am about as lively as Knock
En route to visiting a friend in Spain last week, I first flew to Marseille. No reader, you wouldn't start from Marseille to get to Spain if you were me. But I'd never been to Marseille before, and it was a cheap flight, and I had time to spare. There was also the prospect of a side trip into the ochre-red hills of Roussillon, where Samuel Beckett spent time during the war, an experience commemorated in Waiting for Godot. A member of the Resistance, Beckett was waiting for Germans, mostly. And they didn't come either. Even so, his connection with the village has spawned an annual theatre festival, later in July. My plan was to see Marseille and Roussillon, briefly, then take a series of relaxing, picturesque train journeys around the Mediterranean, down to the Costa Brava. READ MORE In the event, I never saw Roussillon. But thanks to that great tradition of holiday season, the French transport strike, my trip had no shortage of Beckett-style waiting anyway. It started at Dublin Airport, where we learned that our 7.45pm take-off would be at 8.45 due to industrial action by French air traffic controllers. Then we boarded the Ryanair plane to be told we didn't have clearance to take off for another 2½ hours. So we sat on the tarmac until 11.15pm, and it was 2.30am local time when we landed in Marseille. On the plus side, this was the airport of France's second-largest city, so sure to be a hive of activity even then? Au contraire. Marseille Airport was about as lively at 2.30am as its equivalent in Knock. The arrival of a flight from Dublin seemed to take passport control by surprise: they had to have a short conference before opening kiosks. Then we trooped out, past flight-delayed families sleeping on floors, to find the bus service had long closed. Taxis were scarce too, although at a nightly average of €90 to the city, they must be a path to riches. A friendly cabman dropping someone off explained his wasn't an official airport taxi but gave me a lift to the rank. When we found that empty, I hired him anyway, and at the same price as the flight, got a taxi to the hotel for half the night I'd booked. That experience sapped some of my enthusiasm for a two-bus trip to Roussillon. But it took another kind of French air strike – the 36 degrees C variety that hit me outside the hotel next morning – to sap the rest of it. Seeing Marseille would be enough of a challenge for this visit. Thirty-six hours later, I caught a train to Perpignan, which was indeed a picturesque journey, if not a relaxing one, because I had to change at Narbonne and feared falling asleep and waking in Bordeaux instead. Also, for reasons explained only in barely audible French, the train became 90 minutes late en route. But I did eventually reach Perpignan: a place notable for being the first city of its size to elect a far-right mayor. That's an interesting subject, to which I'll return later in the week. For the purposes of this narrative, meanwhile, the most striking thing (pun not intended but I'll leave it there) about Perpignan was my attempt to get out of it. A train to Barcelona, although the trip is not much more than two hours, would have cost €139. For €100 less than that, I booked a bus, with a company hitherto unknown to me called Blablacar. That's a fun name for a bus company, although it would not fill you with confidence if you had to call the customer complaints department, as I would. My experience was not helped by the fact that Ireland seemed to be as unknown to Blablacar as Blablacar had been to me. On the screen where you gave your mobile number, the scroll-down menu of prefixes offered the UK's +0044. But +353 was nowhere to be seen and I couldn't enter it automatically. This meant not receiving updates about the lateness of the 12.05pm service, of which there were several. I was dependent instead on a friendly young Frenchman who, even at 1pm, was worried about his 6.30pm flight from Barcelona. I reassured him he had loads of time. I was wrong. Our bus turned up at 1.55pm and left just promptly to avoid the possible refunds a two-hour delay might have triggered. Then, when about 20 miles from Barcelona, the driver announced he had to stop for another 45 minutes. Rules, apparently: he'd been on duty for 8 hours. As we whiled away the time, again, my mind went back to Marseille and the famous anthem it inspired. Maybe that spirit of militancy is still live in the French trade union movement. But the weary patience with which locals greeted the delays everywhere suggested the line 'Attendons, citoyens!' should replace the one that says 'Marchons!'. I would have been up for forming battalions myself, as the song instructs. The natives were content to form queues.
