Millions of dead fish have washed up in a Greek tourist resort leaving holidaymakers confined indoors to avoid the overwhelming stench.
The city of Volos has seen its port covered in the carcasses as authorities and residents scrambled to try and clear the mess before the smell reached nearby restaurants and hotels.
City council member Stelios Limnios said: “It spans kilometres, It’s not just along the coast, but also in the centre of the Pagasetic Gulf (a large tourist hotspot).”
57 tonnes of deaf fish were removed on Tuesday alone, with trawlers being used throughout Wednesday in an attempt to gather up the remaining fish.
Blame for the incident has already started to be handed out with Mayor Achilleas Beos using a press conference to blame the government for not dealing with the issue before it reached his city’s shores.
Mr Beos said that he fears the rotting remains could pose an environmental health risk and potentially a danger for other species.
The area experienced historic floods last year which some experts have identified as the cause of the fish washing up.
One expert said: “After the storms Daniel and Elias last autumn, around 20,000 hectares of plains in Thessaly were flooded, and various freshwater fish were carried by rivers’ to the sea, Dimitris Klaudatos, a professor of agriculture and environment at the University of Thessaly.”
The flooding led to a steep decline in tourist figures this year, with visitor numbers down by around 80%, a figure unlikely to be helped by the wanted corpses.
The president of the tourist association Stefanos Stefanou said: “The situation with this dead fish will be the death of us, what visitor will come to our city after this?”
Dimosthenis Bakoyiannis, 33, who owns a beach restaurant 10 km (6 miles) from Volos, says his turnover dropped 80% this summer as fewer tourists wanted to visit after the flooding.
“Closing the barrier now doesn’t help,” he said. “Now it’s too late, the tourist season is over.
Local authorities have opened an inquiry to study water qualities and microbial levels in the estuary of Lake Karla, as well as potential pollution in the gulf.
The disaster is the latest impact of extreme weather in Greece that scientists link to climate change, including higher temperatures and erratic rainfall that cause wildfires and flooding.
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