A 17-year-old British boy is on life support in an Athens hospital after falling from a hotel balcony in the early hours of Friday morning, with a local shopkeeper arrested for allegedly selling him alcohol before the incident.
The teenager plunged from the first floor of a hotel in Chalandri, a northern suburb of Athens known as a party district, and was rushed to the Red Cross Hospital where he was intubated and placed in intensive care. A source told the Sun his condition was “touch and go,” describing multiple injuries including internal wounds. “He has multiple wounds, some internal, and has been put on life support in the intensive care ward,” the source said. “It’s touch and go and we are all praying he will pull through.” No further update on his condition has been issued.
Greek authorities have launched an investigation and a local supermarket owner has been arrested on suspicion of selling alcohol to the underage tourist prior to the fall. Investigators said it was still too early to establish exactly what happened. “What we do know is that he fell from the first floor of the hotel and that alcohol had been consumed,” an investigator told the Sun.
The incident is the latest in a series of serious injuries sustained by British tourists in Greece in recent days. A 50-year-old British woman is also in a critical condition in hospital after being struck on the head by a rock that broke away from the cliff face at the Nydri waterfalls on the island of Lefkada, one of Greece’s most visited natural attractions. Firefighters scaled the steep rocky terrain to reach her and carried her to safety on a stretcher before she was taken to hospital, where she underwent surgery and had a breathing tube fitted. She is expected to be transferred to a specialist trauma centre in Athens. Several other tourists at the same spot suffered minor injuries from smaller falling stones. It remains unclear whether the incident was the result of a natural rock collapse or whether warning signs had been in place and ignored.
