A vital stretch of the eastern Athens ring road was shut to traffic yesterday morning due to a landslide on the slopes of Mount Hymettus.

The section of Katehaki Avenue near the Saketas military camp on the outskirts of Vyronas, eastern Athens, reopened four hours after the 8.30 a.m. landslide, which left rocks and earth strewn over the right-hand lane for northern-bound traffic. Nobody was injured but large traffic jams ensued.

Public Works Ministry officials plan to shore up that part of the hillside with a concrete wall. It was unclear what caused the landslide. Katehaki Avenue links the southern suburbs with northern Athens and the Attiki Odos highway through the new northern Hymettus ring road.

Meanwhile, on Thursday night, heavy rainfall caused the collapse of an 18th century stone bridge near the village of Kavalari in the Zagorohoria area of Epirus.