A major search operation was continuing for a third day Thursday for a 55-year-old British tourist who has been missing on the Ionian island of Kefalonia since Tuesday evening, with rescuers scouring rugged terrain amid high temperatures.
The man had been staying with his wife in Katelios, in southern Kefalonia, and set out on foot toward the wider Pastra area, according to local reports.
A fire brigade special rescue team, police officers and volunteers are searching across steep slopes, trails in the area. Drones are also being used to survey larger areas and inspect locations inaccessible to ground teams.
The search was intensified as the hours passed without a confirmed sighting of the man. Local volunteer teams familiar with the terrain are assisting the emergency services, while a specially trained search dog has also been deployed.
The case comes amid a series of incidents involving foreign tourists in Greece this summer and over the past year, including searches for missing visitors in remote or difficult terrain. In July 2025, two tourists went missing off the island of Lefkada after strong winds carried their stand-up paddleboards out to sea, prompting a large-scale coast guard search. More recently, a foreign tourist remained missing during a major sea and land search off the small Dodecanese island of Symi in August.
Kefalonia, one of the Ionian Sea’s most popular tourist destinations, has also seen several serious incidents involving foreign visitors this summer.
A 50-year-old Greek-British woman was critically injured by a falling rock while visiting the Nydri waterfalls on neighboring Lefkada in June, while a 19-year-old woman died on Kefalonia in April, in a case that remains under investigation.
