ATHENS: A 36-year-old man who tried to board a passenger ship as it sailed from Greece’s Piraeus port on Tuesday drowned after being pushed back by crew members off the vessel’s stern ramp, the country’s shipping minister said on Wednesday.
The incident has shocked the country. Video footage released on social media showed crew members arguing with the man on the stern ramp just as the ferry was leaving Piraeus for the island of Crete.
Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said on Wednesday that the man, who had bought a ticket, had boarded the ship before disembarking for unknown reasons and then tried to board again, which was when he was pushed back by crew members and fell into the sea just as the ship departed.
“I feel shock and horror for what has happened,” Varvitsiotis told Parapolitika radio station. “The images are revealing and shocking. I also feel great sadness for the loss of the 36-year-old man.”
Varvitsiotis said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “there is no doubt that the crime was homicide.” He added that four people have been detained over the incident, which is being investigated by a prosecutor.
In two separate statements on Wednesday, the ship’s owner Attica Group said that its management was “shocked by the tragic incident” and that it was cooperating with authorities to help shed light on the case.
“The scenes we all witnessed last night are unthinkable and do not conform with the group’s values,” it said, adding that the group was also investigating internally why “clear, defined procedures which must be strictly followed by the crews of all our ships were not followed.”
Man drowns after trying to board departing ferry in Greece’s Piraeus port
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Man drowns after trying to board departing ferry in Greece’s Piraeus port
- Video footage released on social media showed crew members arguing with the man on the stern ramp just as the ferry was leaving Piraeus for the island of Crete
- Varvitsiotis said on social media platform X that “there is no doubt that the crime was homicide”
Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy after border clashes
- A dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence
DHAKA: Bangladesh on Tuesday summoned the ambassador of Myanmar after civil war gun battles in the neighboring country spilled over the border, wounding a Bangladeshi girl.
Heavy fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine state this month has involved junta soldiers, Arakan Army fighters and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militia guerrillas.
Authorities said around a dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence.
Twelve-year-old Huzaifa Afnan was struck by a bullet, while a Bangladeshi fisherman had his leg ripped off after stepping on a landmine near the frontier.
“Bangladesh reminded that the unprovoked firing towards Bangladesh is a blatant violation of international law and a hindrance to good neighborly relations,” a Foreign Ministry press statement said.
Myanmar’s ambassador to Bangladesh, U Kyaw Soe Moe, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, where he expressed sincere sympathy to the injured victims and their families.
“My daughter was supposed to go to school, but she is on a ventilator,” Afnan’s father Jasim Uddin said. “My heart is bleeding for my baby girl.”
More than a million Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar, many after a 2017 military crackdown, and now eke out a living in sprawling refugee camps just across the border in Bangladesh.
ARSA, a Rohingya armed group formed to defend the persecuted Muslim minority, has been fighting the Myanmar military, as well as rival Arakan Army guerrillas.
On Monday, Bangladeshi border forces detained 53 ARSA fighters who had crossed the frontier.
Bangladeshi police officer Saiful Islam, commander of the local Teknaf station, said all detainees were being held in jail, except one fighter who was receiving hospital treatment for bullet wounds.
“These individuals have a history of living in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and crossing into Myanmar,” Islam told AFP.
