Thessaloniki’s chief prosecutor Vassilis Floridis has written to the prime minister, it emerged yesterday, to ask the state to intervene and remove the rebel monks occupying the premises of the 1,000-year-old Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos.

“The immediate intervention of public force is needed to remove quickly, effectively and without complications the people illegally occupying the monastery,” Floridis said.

The Esphigmenou Monastery has been the focus of a long-running dispute between the Orthodox Church and the rebel monks who strongly oppose efforts to mend a schism between the Orthodox Church and the Vatican.

In his letter, Floridis said that the intervention of the state is now the only way that the standoff can be resolved permanently.