Storm Bora floods homes, streets in Greek island of Rhodes

ATHENS - Torrential rains flooded homes, businesses and roads in the popular Greek tourist island of Rhodes on Sunday, forcing authorities to temporarily ban the use of vehicles as Storm Bora pounded the country for a second day.

On Saturday, a man died in flash floods which hit another Greek island in the northern Aegean.

The fire service received more than 650 calls to pump water out of flooded buildings on Rhodes island and evacuated 80 people to safer ground, with the city of Ialysos hit the hardest. No injuries were reported.

Cars and debris were piled up high in the flooded streets of Rhodes, with residents trying to remove mud from their water-logged properties.

"The situation is tragic, some have lost their homes, some have fled, our cars are in a terrible condition," said Sofia Kanelli in Ialysos.

Fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told Greece's SKAI TV that the bad weather would continue on Monday.

The Mediterranean country has been ravaged by floods and wildfires in recent years, with scientists saying that Greece has become a "hot spot" for climate change.

"The conditions in recent years are different; we have sudden rainfall and sudden floods," Varthakogiannis said.

In 2023, more than 20,000 tourist and locals were forced to flee homes and seaside hotels as wildfires burned for days.

Thunderstorms and heavy rain also interrupted train services in mainland Greece, especially in the centre and north of the country.

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Lefteris Damianidis in Rhodes, Editing by Bernadette Baum)