Serbian Woman, 84, Dies on Hanioti Beach in Halkidiki

An 84-year-old woman from Serbia died in the evening hours of September 20 on Hanioti Beach in Halkidiki, just as Greece’s summer tourist season was winding down, though large numbers of Serbian nationals were still in the area. News of the tragedy, which Greek media report citing a post from a volunteer lifeguard at the scene, had not previously reached the Serbian public.

According to the volunteer lifeguard’s account, which was cited in coverage of the incident, two lifeguards reacted immediately after the woman began drowning in the sea off Hanioti Beach. The sources diverge on one detail: Espreso reports that, according to what is known so far, cardiac arrest occurred after she started drowning, while Mondo’s report does not mention cardiac arrest at all. Neither outlet cites police as the source of that detail, describing it instead as unofficial information whose origin is not more precisely identified.

What the lifeguards did on the beach

The two lifeguards carried out all the necessary resuscitation measures as soon as they pulled the woman from the sea. They set up a defibrillator, administered medical oxygen and immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The effort continued with the help of a volunteer lifeguard named Joanis Kolokites, whose role in the rescue attempt was reported by both Serbian outlets, based on his own account of the event.

A team from Greece’s national emergency medical service, known by its acronym EKAB, soon arrived on the beach and joined the lifeguards in the resuscitation attempt. Despite every effort made, both by the volunteer lifeguards and by the medical crew that took over the intervention, the woman did not survive.

The identity of the woman who died, as well as the town in Serbia she came from, has not been made public so far. There is also no information on whether she was alone on the beach or with family, nor on the exact time of day the incident occurred, since the sources refer only to the evening hours of September 20.

Halkidiki at the end of the season

The tragedy occurred at Hanioti, one of the most popular tourist beaches on the Kassandra peninsula, just as summer on Halkidiki is gradually drawing to a close. That is precisely why a significant number of Serbian visitors are still there, spending the final days of the season on the Greek coast before heading home, which makes the case relevant to readers currently traveling or preparing to return.

Greek authorities typically do not issue a separate statement in such cases unless there are elements of a criminal offense, so most of the information about the course of the rescue comes from the lifeguards who were on the scene. The same pattern repeated itself here: the only source of information so far has been the volunteer lifeguard who took part in the resuscitation attempt, not any official Greek institution.

Until official sources comment, it remains unknown whether cardiac arrest, if it indeed occurred, preceded the drowning or resulted from it. The Hanioti case therefore remains, for now, recorded the way the volunteer lifeguard who first reached the woman in the water described it, while the more precise sequence of events, including the cause of death, depends on what Greek authorities eventually disclose in the coming days.