Santorini wreck a ticking time bomb, residents warn

The wreck of a cruise ship, which ran aground near the popular tourist destination of Santorini in April 2007 and sank the next day, has remained an ecological bomb at the bottom of the island’s caldera, according to the coordinating committee of the Santorini Association for the Salvaging of the Sea Diamond Wreck in a letter it sent to Parliament’s Special Standing Committee for Environmental Protection.

Santorini’s residents are demanding the implementation of current legislation and relevant judicial decisions for the immediate removal of the ship.

“The shipwreck remains on the seabed and continues to pollute, at a slow but steady rate, it erodes daily and at any time it can cause an incalculable ecological disaster,” the letter said.

Two passengers went missing and were presumed dead after the ship sank, after running aground on a well-marked volcanic reef east of Nea Kameni, within the island’s caldera.