“We Were Not Explicitly Warned” British Tourist Speaks Out After Tragedy on Symi Island
A British tourist visiting Symi, the island where TV doctor Michael Mosley was found dead, revealed he received no warnings about staying safe despite the recent tragic incident.
Harvey McIntosh, from Plymouth, took a day trip to Symi while vacationing on the nearby island of Rhodes. Despite being aware of the tragedy involving Dr. Mosley, Harvey said he was not “explicitly warned” about the dangers, including the extreme heat.
“We had heard of the stories in the news but were not explicitly warned of any current danger,” McIntosh stated. “We were simply walking around the main town.”
The 27-year-old tourist noted that the temperature was around 32 degrees Celsius, with little to no breeze. “The heat was quite stifling. However, it was no hotter than Rhodes, where we had come from,” he added. The town center was bustling with people, many of whom were day-trippers from Rhodes.
Harvey and his friends, Elizabeth Wilson, 28, and Helen Horner, 29, were on a three-hour boat trip to Symi and chose to stay within the town due to the hot weather. “We definitely would not go for a day hike in this weather,” Harvey emphasized.
Following Dr. Mosley’s death, several other tourists have gone missing during the ongoing heatwave on the Greek islands. This month alone, a Dutch tourist and an American tourist have been found dead, while another American and two French tourists are still missing. In total, four tourists have died.
Dr. Mosley went missing on Wednesday, June 5, after taking a short walk from Agios Nikolaos beach and accidentally straying off course. A frantic search ensued, and the 67-year-old was found dead on Sunday, June 9, just meters from a resort. A postmortem concluded he died of natural causes around 4 p.m. on the Wednesday, having set out in 37-degree weather just three hours earlier.
Currently, temperatures in Symi range between 29 and 32 degrees Celsius, prompting a level three alert and an excessive heat warning across Greece. In Athens, authorities are distributing bottles of water to tourists, and several attractions, including the Acropolis, have been closed after reports of people fainting in the heat.
Greek state TV meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos told the Independent, “In the 20th century we never had a heatwave before June 19. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before June 15.”
Rhodes and Symi haven’t experienced the highest temperatures. Chania, a city on the northwest coast of Crete, recorded a temperature of 44.5 degrees Celsius last Thursday.
As heatwave conditions continue, travelers to Greece are urged to exercise caution and stay informed about safety measures to avoid similar tragedies.