With the participation of a helicopter and with weather conditions favoring the search, the efforts to locate the 23-year-old Panagiotis continue at the ski center in Seli, Imathia, whose traces have been missing since Monday noon when he got separated from his friends while they were going down the mountain.
According to the manager of the ski center who spoke to ANT1 "we have turned all the dangerous points, apparently he was far away from the ski resort".
According to him, the most likely possibilities are "either the young man has been injured far from the ski resort or has fallen into a tree".
For this reason, he added, "we are now searching the forested parts of the mountain" with a helicopter, three drones, two specially trained dogs and dozens of EMAK rescuers and volunteers who are searching the area bit by bit.
The announcement of the Fire Department
During the afternoon hours yesterday, Monday, January 06, 2025, the Operations Center of the Fire Brigade was notified, for a search and rescue of a man at the ski resort of Vermio - Seli.
A search and rescue team was immediately formed and a total of 35 firefighters with 15 vehicles as well as a special crawler vehicle, the Mountaineering Teams of the 2nd and 5th EMAK, a rescue dog, S.mi.E.A. teams, a Fire Brigade helicopter, ELAS forces are operating , volunteers and volunteer groups.
The 23-year-old was a paratrooper
According to his aunt, Panagiotis "was a paratrooper and we believe that if he has been injured he would have protected himself". She told SKAI that the young man "wasn't wearing a helmet, he had bars, water, some clothes, etc. in his bag. He was well dressed, wearing a ski suit."
Describing, however, the last time his brother and friends saw him was at 14pm on Monday, when they chose to go straight down the track and "he moved diagonally".
“He was experienced, he really liked skiing. We can't find the location of the mobile phone, it was showing us 3-5 Wells here too" he added.
"He was knowledgeable, and yesterday he was here"
"Every minute counts. The last time his friends saw him was at 14:08, they let him go down by himself, they waited for him until 4 and when they saw that he didn't come back, they asked for help," the 23-year-old's aunt told ERT earlier.
According to her, the young man "is knowledgeable, and he was here the day before yesterday" while adding that the last signal his cell phone gave was at 14:38 p.m. on Monday.
"We believe that we will have good news because Panagiotis is a strong child" concluded the skier's aunt.
As the president of the municipality of Kato Vermio - Selio, Giorgos Farsarotos, said, the rescuers fortunately do not have to face adverse weather conditions in the battle to locate the 23-year-old.
In particular, the temperature at an altitude of 1.800 meters on the mountain at night did not fall below zero and ranged from 1 to 5 degrees Celsius.
According to the information of veriotis.gr, the young man originally from Kilkis, went up with his group, 4-5 people from Thessaloniki, to Seli for skiing on the Day of Lights. The young man who was snowboarding, at one point moved away from his company to explore the slopes of the ski resort.
His traces were lost after the closing of the center, with his company, alerting the authorities, as time passed, their friend did not return and they were unable to contact him.
Source: protothema.gr