STORM Erminio has claimed its first victim as a man was swept away and trapped under a car in Greece.
The storm has battered the whole country with torrential rain and flooding, and the skies over Santorini and Crete have taken on a hellish red tinge.
The Greek authorities issued red and orange weather warnings and emergency alerts across the country ahead of Easter weekend.
Across the country, trees are falling and crushing cars whilst power lines are collapsing.
On the idyllic island of Poros, roads transformed to rivers with cars floating past in the muddy torrents.
Dozens of people are trapped in Nikos Kazantzakis airport in Crete as flights are cancelled due to suffocating dust making it too dangerous to fly.
Dust storms from Africa have obscured the sun and bathed the skies in eerie red and orange hues.
Storm Erminio has plunged the region into chaos and partial darkness as lights go out and a mixture of snow and torrential rain blanket the country.
The storm brought severe flooding to the southern Greek town of Nea Makri in Attica where a man tragically lost his life.
The victim, originally from Poland, left the house to escape his flooded basement on Megalou Alexandrou Street.
In a tragic accident, the 54-year-old slipped and was swept away in the powerful waters rushing down his street.
He travelled 49ft before becoming trapped under a car and drowning.
The neighbour who found the man described the scene of his death as “chaos”.
“The water was coming in with force”.
“Suddenly I see something under the wheels, I mistook it for a dog”.
“We were in danger, we didn’t sleep all night […] it was wedged under the wheel”, the resident explained.
The resident said that the in the spot where the man died, “three vehicles had been swept away by the force of the water”.
