THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) – Greek authorities picked up about 70 migrants, including children, in a snowy forest near the northern city of Thessaloniki on Wednesday, as smugglers turn to previously popular routes into the European Union rather than the sea crossing from Turkey.
Members of the group, who said they were from Syria, told Greek police they had crossed the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border in dinghies and were then brought to Thessaloniki hidden in a truck.
The truck driver left them in the forest late Tuesday, and they spent the night there in the snow, authorities said. Police are searching for the driver.
Temperatures have plunged below freezing in the past two days across many parts of the country.
“We stayed all night in the forest. It was very cold and it was snowing,” 22-year-old Syrian Omar Abdi Aziz told The Associated Press by telephone.