THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) โ A man was swept away and drowned and a woman went missing after a group of migrants hiking through the hills of northern Greece to avoid police patrols crossed a swollen torrent amid storms Wednesday, authorities said.
Police said the Iranian man's body was found by rescuers who responded to an emergency call from another Iranian man who had been with the group and stayed behind to help the two. Efforts to locate the missing woman in the area, 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the Greek city of Thessaloniki, are expected to continue on Thursday.
Police said the migrants had entered Greece illegally from Turkey, and it is believed that smugglers brought them to the area and left them to reach Thessaloniki. It was unclear how many people had been in the group, which kept going after the accident.
Heavy storms and snowfall are affecting much of northern and central Greece, with temperatures around zero degrees. Hurricane-force winds kept most of the Greek island ferries confined to port on Wednesday.
Greece is a major entry point for people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union. Most enter from neighboring Turkey, either by crossing the northeastern land border or by getting on smuggling boats headed for islands in the eastern Aegean Sea.
Recently, smuggling gangs have even been packing migrants onto yachts heading from Turkey to Italy. Dozens of migrants were killed in a series of accidents in the central Aegean last month.
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