A 56-year-old climber from Thessaloniki is undergoing treatment at the cardiology clinic of Kavala Hospital. He has serious injuries, but his condition is not critical.

This afternoon, the funeral of the 55-year-old athlete from Kavala, who died from a lightning strike during a mountaineering race on Mount Falakro in Drama, will take place.

It was the first time they had experienced such weather events, the organizers of the race said in an interview with ERT, shocked by the tragic event. People who know Falakro and its features, who have been moving around the massif and taking part in races for years, speak of unprecedented weather phenomena, with unstoppable lightning that fell one after another.

Of the group of four athletes who were struck by lightning, two were not injured.

In difficult weather conditions, a large-scale rescue operation was immediately launched in the area, as Yiannis Artopios, a spokesman for the fire service, stressed in an interview with ERT. The operation involved 14 firefighters in 5 vehicles.

The men were flown by a helicopter from the Joint Search and Rescue Coordination Center to Chrysoupoli and then to the Kavala hospital.

The start of the race took place at 19:00 on Saturday from the Towers of the municipality of Prosocani, at the foot of Falakros. The affected team was nearing the finish line when a fatality was recorded.

Source: ERT