A Romanian man who had sought shelter from heavy rainfall by sleeping in a blue garbage bin in central Thessaloniki was pulled to safety from a garbage truck’s compactor. Greek authorities said his life is not in danger.
The incident occurred after midnight. A municipal sanitation crew on its regular route lifted the bin to empty it and realized, as the trash fell, that a person was inside. The crew immediately halted the truck’s operation and extracted the man before he could be drawn into the compaction system.
He suffered a broken leg in the fall into the truck. He was treated at Papageorgiou Hospital for minor leg injuries.
"We stopped in time"
The sanitation workers and the driver appeared visibly distressed after the rescue and called police. A patrol car arrived and recorded the incident. All involved later gave statements at the nearest police station. Municipal officials emphasized the importance of modern mechanical equipment and well-trained personnel, noting the crew’s readiness prevented what could have turned into a fatal event.
Two members of the sanitation team, Anastasios Maskalidis and Thodoris Karakottas, were credited with spotting the man and acting instantly. “We went to lift the bin and the man fell inside the garbage truck, we stopped in time when we heard him shouting. I was shocked, we lifted the press and got him out. Luckily, I hit the stop button quickly,” Maskalidis said, according to Newsit. City leaders later met with the crew and publicly thanked them.
The vice president of the municipal employees’ association said the truck’s configuration made a difference. “We were lucky because the garbage truck was a press and not a grinder. Because if it were a grinder, with the barrel that spins, it would have pulled him in and we wouldn’t have had time to do anything,” the vice president noted, according to Proto Thema.