More than 30 people were “trapped” in elevators across the large island of Crete on Monday after an extensive power outage disrupted electricity supplies, with the fire brigade called to intervene in each case.
More than 10 elevator breakdowns were recorded in the city of Heraklion (Irakleio) alone. All those inside were safely freed by firefighters who responded to the affected buildings.
The outage affected areas across all four prefectures on Crete and was linked to a fault in the island’s electricity connection with mainland Greece. Power supplies were subsequently restored after backup generation units were brought online at power stations on the island.
The incident comes amid a handful of power disruptions reported in Greece in recent months, including outages in parts of Athens during a mini-July heatwave, when soaring temperatures drove up electricity demand. A power failure also affected a large hospital in the Piraeus-area district of Nikaia last June.
Crete’s power grid has been strengthened in recent years through a subsea connection with mainland Greece, reducing the island’s reliance on local generation.
