After a shocking incident at the port of Piraeus, the Prosecutor’s Office in Piraeus has ordered the arrest of the deck officer and the captain of the vessel, Blue Horizon.
The decision comes in the wake of the tragic death of a 36-year-old man who, in his attempt to catch the departing ship, fell in the sea and drowned.
Videos circulating on social media platforms shed light on the desperate struggle of the 36-year-old man as he attempted to board the ship, engaging in a dispute with individuals from the ship’s crew.
Eyewitnesses aboard the F/B ELYROS, which was docked next to the Blue Horizon at the port of Piraeus, observed the harrowing incident firsthand.
News website Protothema.gr reached out to Froso Tetrandonaki, a passenger on the “ELYROS” who was on the deck of the ship at the time of the incident.
“Many people were on the ELYROS deck for a smoke and witnessed the incident clearly. She saw the crew members of the ‘Blue Horizon’ pushing the man into the sea. They pushed him three or four times before the ship’s gangway was raised,” Tetrandonaki said.
The witness said that approximately 10 minutes after the man fell into the sea, she saw his lifeless body floating in the water.
“At that moment, I called the Coast Guard and made an anonymous report about the incident. ‘They pushed the man into the sea, and he drowned. They killed him,’ were the words I conveyed to the authorities,” she said, visibly shaken. She noted that the man’s body remained afloat for about 30 minutes before it was recovered.
Βίντεο σοκ: Το πλήρωμα έσπρωξε από το Blue Horizon στον θάνατο τον 36χρονο που σκοτώθηκε στο λιμάνι Πειραιά pic.twitter.com/FdzFTliZLg
— kakajason (@kakajason50) September 5, 2023
Vasilis Mikropoulos, a passenger on the F/B ELYROS corroborates the testimony.
“We saw everything clearly. We were at a distance of fifty meters. They were pushing him and telling him to leave,” Mikropoulos said.
In an statement issued by the Attica Group, the company said it will collaborate with the authorities to fully investigate the incident.
“The Management of the Attica Group, deeply saddened by the tragic incident that occurred at the Port of Piraeus, declares that it is cooperating with all competent authorities for a thorough clarification of the matter.”
Minister of Shipping Miltiadis Varvitsiotis in an online post said:
“I express my sorrow for the tragic incident at the port of Piraeus, where a person lost his life. The Port Authority of Piraeus is taking all necessary actions to investigate the case and assign responsibility.”
