Two lost as high waves claim car
Authorities on Rhodes yesterday mounted an intensive search for two men missing since early in the morning when their car was washed off a pier by large waves during a violent storm. The two men – Christos Ioannidis, 43, and Savvas Geravelis, 38 – had gone for an after-midnight drive in Geravelis’s jeep, together with a third friend, Nikos Katis, 43, to a new port under construction in the area of Akantia. Local reports said the three had gone to get a glimpse of the seething sea, which was whipped up into a mass of waves by winds over 10 on the Beaufort scale. The vehicle had reached the end of the pier when it was caught by the waves, at which point Ioannidis and Kattis managed to jump out onto dry land. But Geravelis dove into the sea, and was carried away together with Ioannidis, who tried to save him. The search was called off late yesterday due to high winds, and is set to resume early today.
