View picture gallery
Thousands of motorists spent the night in their vehicles on highways in the Greek capital of Athens and across central Greece. Most flights from the capital’s airport have been cancelled. Numerous flights are also canceled in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul.
The flight stop at Istanbul’s largest airport will be extended until 1 p.m. local time (11 a.m. CET), the operating company announced on Twitter on Tuesday. The civil aviation authority also wrote that runways at Istanbul International Airport were still closed due to the weather conditions. The semi-public airline Turkish Airlines said that there were also failures at the smaller Sabiha Gokcen Airport at the other end of the city. The reason is a restriction on flights by the local authorities.
Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya banned the use of private vehicles in the metropolis. Clearing vehicles were used to clear roads of snow and ice. According to media reports, numerous people had to spend the night in the car.
It also snowed in the tourism areas of Bodrum and Antalya. According to the weather agency, further snowfall is expected in the Istanbul region and in Anatolia during the course of Tuesday.
In Greece, meanwhile, even the military was deployed to get people out of their cars and accommodate them in hotels – around 1,200 cars were still stuck in the greater Athens area alone on Tuesday morning, according to Greek media reports. Some of those affected had already been stuck for 22 hours.
The chaos on the country’s motorways had already begun on Monday afternoon when poorly equipped cars and trucks without winter tires and snow chains could no longer get on, blocking the way for the clearing equipment. Winter tires are not compulsory in Greece – especially in the Athens area, it rarely snows in winter and if it does, then only lightly.
There were problems in other parts of the country too. In many places, trees fell on power lines due to the snow load – electricity has not yet been restored everywhere. For today, Tuesday, the government has ordered that most companies, shops and authorities in the affected areas should remain closed. Thaw is expected from Tuesday noon.
Source: Nachrichten
