Following hard on the heels of a 46-year-old French tourist’s high-decibel terminal meltdown right before boarding a flight to Paris at Nikos Kazantzakis Airport, local law enforcement faced yet another round of bizarre incidents across the Heraklion and Hersonissos districts.
- Heraklion and Hersonissos authorities faced a chaotic week handling a series of bizarre incidents involving international visitors.
- A Spanish traveler landed in Heraklion with 19 kilograms of cannabis, while a French passenger forced an inflight intervention on a Paris-bound route.
- A Cypriot tourist celebrating a bachelor party took an early-morning sprint directly into a restricted military air defense facility.
A late-night disturbance in Malia narrowly avoided ending in tragedy after bottles and other objects were allegedly thrown from hotel balconies onto people walking below.
“During the operation… the accused was located… A subsequent search of the rooms revealed a hatchet in the possession of two 17-year-olds. No complaints or arrests were made regarding the preceding clash. The only arrests concerned the two minors for violation of weapons legislation.”
According to police information obtained by Argophilia, the incident unfolded in the early hours of Sunday at a hotel where a large group of young visitors was staying. Roughly 15 people reportedly gathered on their balconies before, under circumstances still being investigated, throwing empty beer bottles and other objects toward the street.
Here is where the story transcends local crime and enters the realm of high-stakes international comedy. Realizing the gravity of their beer-bottle siege, the youths allegedly did what any rational, globe-trotting citizen would do: they called their embassy for help.
Specifically, they called their embassy in Bucharest.
Why a crisis in Crete required diplomatic intervention from Romania remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of modern tourism. However, the chain of command was strictly followed: The Embassy in Bucharest alerted Interpol. Interpol alerted the Greek Police. A multi-agency, cross-border task force was effectively assembled to deal with a hangover-induced dispute over who had the high ground.
Police later searched rooms connected to the incident. During the search, officers reportedly discovered a small axe (hatchet) in a room occupied by two 17-year-old Israeli nationals. Authorities have not determined why the tool was in their possession or whether it was connected to the disturbance.
While no complaints were filed regarding the bottle-throwing incident itself, the two minors were arrested on suspicion of violating Greece’s weapons legislation because of the hatchet’s possession. The investigation remains ongoing.
According to the same information, participants in the incident also contacted their country’s embassy after a crowd gathered outside the hotel, prompting communication with international authorities before the Greek Police were notified. The circumstances surrounding those contacts have not been officially clarified.