An immediate preliminary investigation was ordered yesterday by a Piraeus prosecutor into whether anybody should face legal charges for the damage caused locally by floods after the heavy rain on Sunday night and early Monday. Grigoris Peponis ordered his staff and police station chiefs in Piraeus and Nikaia to investigate whether public drains had been cleaned regularly prior to the downpour.

Many parts of Attica were afflicted by Monday’s flooding but Piraeus was one of the worst hit. In the district of Kokkinia, 28 parked cars on one street were swept away by a torrent, which fire brigade officials attributed to the street having been built over a former streambed.

Peponis asked for the probe to be extended to neighboring municipalities and the Prefecture of Piraeus in order to establish whether other streambeds had been cleared of building waste and other garbage.