Rethymno: two minors hospitalised after drinking

Two minors were taken to a hospital unit in Rethymno in a state of intoxication on the evening of Sunday 16 August 2026, in two separate incidents reported by Politica.gr and SKAI Kritis. In both cases ambulances of the national ambulance service EKAB and police units were mobilised. According to the same reports, the investigations that followed led to two arrests: the organiser of a feast where a minor is said to have consumed alcohol, and the mother of one of the two. The details of the minors and of those arrested are not being made public, and no information has been given on the children’s condition after their treatment.

The law prohibits the sale and supply of alcoholic drinks to minors and provides for criminal liability both for anyone who offers alcohol to a minor and for those with custody, where a failure of supervision is established. Those arrested are being taken before the competent prosecuting authority, which will decide whether charges will be brought and on what counts. Until then the presumption of innocence applies. Cases involving minors are handled by the juvenile protection services of the Hellenic Police, under special procedures that protect their identity. Acute alcohol poisoning in minors is treated as an emergency, since their bodies metabolise ethanol differently from those of adults and the risk of hypoglycaemia and respiratory depression is real. For that reason transfer to a hospital unit is the rule rather than the exception.

The phenomenon is not isolated in Crete this summer. Only a few days earlier, three guardians had been arrested in Chania over a similar case, as TodayGrid reported in «Chania: three guardians arrested over minors’ intoxication», while a comparable incident had also occurred in Mylopotamos. The repetition within a short period and across three different regional units shows that this is not a local issue but a broader pattern of the summer season, when festival events become more frequent. The village feasts and open-air events of August draw crowds of all ages and operate without the entry controls that apply in licensed premises, which makes the ban hard to enforce in practice.

The competent services have not announced whether targeted checks are planned at premises and events to enforce the ban on supplying alcohol to minors. The intensive checks carried out by the Hellenic Police in Crete over the past three days focused mainly on the road network. TodayGrid will return to the story once official information is given on the progress of the two cases. More from the area on the Rethymno page. The health services of the prefecture cover a population many times larger in the summer months than in winter, with emergency departments under significant pressure during the night hours. It has not been made known whether the two minors had to be kept in hospital.