The chaos following the rockfall at Navagio Beach on the Greek island of Zakynthos on Thursday was described by some tourists as being “like Dunkirk.” Tons of rock broke away from the cliff face, falling down onto the popular “Shipwreck Beach” in Zante. At least seven people received minor injuries.

The video included below shows the moment the rock broke away from the cliff face, with what was described as some as being an “almighty cracking sound.” One local tour guide compared the rockfall to a “four-storey building falling onto the beach.”

Terrifying rockfall on the popular tourist beach

The brief video clips included below show the moment the rockfall began, with tons of rock breaking away from the cliff face and falling onto the crowded beach in Zante.

on the Ionian island of Zakynthos in Greece. The videographers no doubt ran when they realised what was happening.

There were at least seven people injured in the rockfall, but according to coastguard officials, none of them received life-threatening injuries. As reported by Reuters, one Czech woman received injuries to her back and the coastguard transferred her to a local hospital. The other six people injured included two children and according to a hospital official they received treatment for minor injuries.

The tour guide describes the rockfall at Navagio Beach

As reported by the Evening Standard, Josh O’Connell, 21, of Kilkenny, Ireland works for a local tour company and described the terrifying scene.

O’Connell estimates there are around 400 to 500 people in the area when the rockfall occurred and around a dozen tourist boats were out in the bay.

O’Connell described the piece of rock that fell as being as big as a four-storey building, crashing down onto the beach. The rock was so large, it caused a small tsunami, with large waves crashing onto the beach.

He believed more were coming, so he started running.

The water hit his feet with such a strong force, it knocked him onto his back and went on to cover more than half the beach. O’Connell described the chaos, with families scrambling to rush to safety on the boats in the bay. Meanwhile, some boats were capsizing in the strong waves.

While currently, no one is missing, the coastguard called in helicopters and boats to search the area, in case anyone was trapped under the rocks. While so far, no one has been found, they said they were continuing their search. Rescue services employed sniffer dogs to search the beach itself for possible victims of the rockfall.

The coastguard later called off their search, saying everyone who had travelled to the beach on the tourist boats had been accounted for.

British tourist describes the terrifying scene at ‘Shipwreck Beach’

Lynette Bridges, 58, was on a tour boat, pulling up to “Shipwreck Beach” as the incident happened.

She said they heard an “almighty cracking sound” as the sheet of rock crashed down onto the beach, flooding the busy beach and capsizing boats.

According to Bridges, there were two rockfalls and the noise from the falling rock as it fell was “unbelievable.” Lynette, who hails from Essex, described the scene at the beach as being “like Dunkirk,” with all the panicked families rushing to the water’s edge and all the boats coming to their rescue.

As reported by Reuters, Navagio Beach – which is popularly known as “Shipwreck Beach” for the shipwreck on its shore – is hemmed in by steep cliffs and can only be accessed by boat, making the incident even more terrifying for the tourists.
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