Rescue operations are underway at full speed in Petralona, Athens, as firefighters and the Mobile Unit for Disaster Response (EMAK), assisted by specially trained search-and-rescue dogs, comb through the rubble of a collapsed apartment building.
A Miraculous Escape
In the harrowing aftermath of the collapse, the story of a woman who lived in the raised ground-floor apartment has stunned onlookers — she narrowly escaped certain death by mere minutes, thanks to a last-minute, seemingly random decision.
The resident had literally stepped out of the building just before it crumbled into a heap of debris and dust. Her relatives — who learned of the disaster via social media and rushed from Nikaia — described how she hadn’t planned to leave at that time but changed her mind at the very last moment.
“She lives in the raised ground-floor unit. She was only out by chance — she wasn’t supposed to leave. She’d simply stepped out to pick up some medication,” a close relative told reporters.
‘She Was Just Going for Medicine’
Her husband’s sister, searching frantically through the panicked crowd, shared the emotional first moments after the collapse:
“Luckily, the young woman had already left the house. She’d gone out to get some specific medication — but her children’s dog was still inside. We called her on the phone — she’s somewhere just behind here,” she said, her voice heavy with relief — and lingering anxiety over the pet still trapped inside.