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EU to hold urgent meeting of interior ministers on Tuesday over Ceuta crisis

The EU is to hold an urgent meeting of interior ministers on Tuesday amid continued divisions in the bloc over the arrival of more than 50,000 migrants in the Spanish territory of Ceuta in north Africa. The decision was taken by officials representing EU member states and Frontex border agency experts at what was described as a “sobering” meeting on Saturday. Spain confirmed at least 67 people had died in the attempted crossing. Some drowned, while others were crushed as they tried to cross a breakwater barrier. The decision to call a summit of ministers was unanimous as EU leaders seek to heal divisions in the bloc and restore a unified approach to migration. Spain said migrant crossings into Ceuta had stopped overnight, as police began installing a 500-metre (1,640ft) floating barrier off its border ‌with Morocco. Andy Burnham, the British prime minister, said on Saturday: “I have been in touch with the Spanish prime minister and [we are] providing what help we can.” Italy and Denmark, with some support from Poland and Sweden, used the meeting on Saturday to criticise Spain for what had happened. In a furious letter on Saturday, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez hit out against “fake news” and “disinformation”, pointing out that “virtually all” migrants had been returned to Morocco after the army intervened on Friday, “preventing any unauthorised onward movement towards continental Europe”. It is understood suspected Russian attempts to spread disinformation to sow dissent within the EU was also discussed at the meeting on Saturday. There is frustration in Spain that previous incidents of this scale, such as mass arrival of migrants on the border of Belarus and Poland or Russia and Finland, were labelled as “hybrid attacks” , and met with solidarity from the rest of the EU. Although more than 48,000 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco by 6pm on Friday, the influx triggered a political crisis for the Madrid government and led some fellow EU countries to call for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen free-movement zone. Juan Jesús Vivas, the president of Ceuta, said that while many people had returned to Morocco, not all those who had crossed into the city had left. “We’re not back to normal because there are several thousand people who need to be returned, and there is still an atmosphere marked by unease and concern,” he said. He also called for “all the security measures deployed” in Ceuta to remain in place to guarantee the safety of the population. Sánchez asked for the meeting after what appeared to be a breakdown of EU unity on external border policy, with Italy attacking Spain. Italy announced on Friday evening that it would suspend its Schengen arrangements with Spain for a month, even though Ceuta – and Spain’s other north African territory, Melilla – are subject to special Schengen rules that prevent onward movement within the zone. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, blamed the situation in Ceuta on the Sánchez government’s decision to offer a now-closed scheme to regularise the status of more than 1 million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers. He said the programme had incentivised human trafficking and was “profoundly wrong”. Sánchez was forthright in a letter sent to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council president, António Costa, and Micheál Martin, the prime minister of Ireland, which holds the EU presidency. Sánchez said that while most EU countries had expressed support and solidarity over events in Ceuta, others had chosen to attack Spain. “Such an attitude – driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance or political interest – is … contrary to European law, humanitarian law and the principles of solidarity that bind us together,” he said. In a pointed rebuke to Italy, he noted that Spain was “according to Frontex, one of the least porous external borders of the European Union, with a number of irregular entries that is half that recorded, for example, in Italy in recent years (2021–26)”. Senior EU officials met on Saturday in a “political crisis response team” convened by Ireland’s presidency. Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, said on Saturday that, as the holders of the EU presidency, “Ireland will convene a meeting on Tuesday of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, chaired by Jim O’Callaghan [justice minister], to discuss developments in Ceuta. “We remain in close contact with all member states and the institutions and continue to monitor the situation,” he said in a social media post. O’Callaghan, who is leading the meetings on behalf of the EU, said he had been in touch with Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to express his solidarity and support. In remarks that appeared to respond to Sánchez’s criticisms, von der Leyen said she welcomed his suggestion of a video conference “to take stock of what has happened”, adding: “Fighting illegal migration requires solidarity and a united European response.” France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said his country would not be seeking Spain’s suspension from Schengen rules. “It’s absolutely not on the table,” he said on Saturday. “We have great cooperation with Spain.” Many of the remaining people who crossed into Ceuta returned to Morocco on Saturday morning amid a reinforced Spanish police and military presence. “We hope to go to Europe to work and earn a living – that’s it,” Souleil Boyan, a 19-year-old from Senegal, told Agence France-Presse outside a migrant centre in Ceuta where dozens of other people from sub-Saharan Africa were waiting for officials. “We all know that in Africa there isn’t much opportunity,” he added. The Spanish government said in a statement on Saturday that the situation in Ceuta remained calm and quiet. It said containment barriers were being installed at the Tarajal beach breakwater, including a 500-metre-long inflatable barrier and a line of anchored buoys. This week’s mass crossing dwarfs the last similar event in May 2021, when Morocco loosened its border controls, allowing about 10,000 people to enter the territory over two days. That crossing came amid heightened tensions between Madrid and Rabat over Spain’s decision to allow the leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, the Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in Spain. Morocco and the Polisario Front both lay claim to Western Sahara, which was under Spanish rule until 1975, when colonial authorities handed the territory to Morocco and Mauritania. That diplomatic crisis ended in 2022 when Madrid reversed its longstanding policy of neutrality and backed Morocco’s plan for Western Sahara, a move that caused a rift between Spain and Algeria, which had supported the Polisario group. Sánchez visited Algiers on 20 July – the first visit by a Spanish head of government in four years – marking a thaw in relations with Algeria. The Spanish government has attributed the latest influx to “human-trafficking mafias” that have taken advantage of a decision by Spain’s supreme court, which recently ruled that those intercepted at sea while trying to enter Ceuta or Melilla could not be summarily returned under special rules. But some migration experts have expressed doubts about that explanation. Mauricio Valiente, the director general of the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission, said the route into Ceuta was very different from the Atlantic route from Africa to the Canary Islands, which is often operated by people smugglers. “Unlike what happens in the Canary Islands, these aren’t people who have to get into a small boat,” he told elDiario.es. “This is a matter of being just metres from a land border, jumping into the sea and trying to get around a breakwater, which makes it much easier to do, even with all the risks.” Valiente said there had been a steady increase in arrivals to Ceuta this year, even before the supreme court ruling. “The causes are complex, and there are surely many reasons,” he said. “But to simplify it by referencing the court ruling or organised crime – to say there’s a direct cause-and-effect relationship – is completely unfounded.” Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, visited Ceuta on Saturday and said he had spoken to migrants there. “I have spoken to a number of them who made it quite clear they intend to make it to Britain,” he said.

EU offered Spain support ‘from first moment’ of Ceuta crisis, says von der Leyen, after Sánchez hits out – Europe live

As EU officials meet to discuss a joint response to irregular arrivals in Ceuta, it is worth remembering that the Spanish prime minister’s ire appears to be directed at Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who has reacted by closing the Schengen border with Spain despite repeated statements that virtually all the arrivals have returned. On Friday evening, Pedro Sánchez underlined Spain’s efforts at stemming migration by publishing a league table, based on Frontex figures, of irregular arrivals in the EU. In a post on X, he wrote: Solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for European treaties and data is not. Number of irregular entries between 2021 and 2026 according to Frontex: Via Italy: 478,600 Via the Western Balkans: 340,600 Via Greece: 259,800 Via Spain: 234,760 Via the eastern border: 48,000 This is not the time to divide. It is the time to continue building a strong and united EU. In the past, the EU has called events like Ceuta a “hybrid attack” with “instrumentalisation” of migration for political purposes, as has occurred on the border between Belarus and Poland and Russia and Finland.

Top mountaineer Nirmal Purja confirmed dead after 11 hit by avalanche in Pakistan

A world-renowned Nepali mountaineer and former UK Special Forces member has died after being among 11 climbers caught in a deadly avalanche on Pakistan’s Broad Peak. Nirmal Purja was killed leading an expedition of 10 other people on the world’s 12th-highest mountain when an avalanche struck at around noon on Thursday. Elite Exped, the company Purja co-founded, said in a statement: “Today it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad Peak.” “We have also received confirmation that other members of the expedition sadly did not survive,” it said, without further detail. Purja made history in 2019 after climbing all 14 of the world’s peaks over 8,000 metres in just over six months. He later led the first team to summit K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, in winter. “Records are made to be broken,” the former Gurkha and UKSF member told the Guardian in 2019. “Someone one day will come along and be stronger. People are only limited by their imagination. If you don’t dream, then you won’t do it. Human beings are capable of doing amazing things.” The expedition included five Nepali climbers, as well as US, Pakistani, Omani and Chinese nationals. Another foreign climber was also part of the group, said Karrar Haidri, the vice-president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. Elite Exped also confirmed the deaths of other expedition members, including his climbing partners and guides, Pur Bahadur Gurung (Yukta), a Nepali citizen, and Nima Sherpa. “Our deepest thoughts, prayers and heartfelt condolences are with their families, friends and loved ones,” the Elite Exped statement said. “No words can erase the pain of this unimaginable loss, and we ask that everyone respects their privacy as they grieve.” On Friday, rescuers had said that four bodies had been found and efforts were under way to retrieve them despite the harsh weather. Among the victims were Nadhira Alharthy, the first Omani to climb Everest, and a US climber, Mallory Geis. Trackers carried by the climbers showed a rapid loss of altitude, suggesting the team had been caught in an avalanche. Purja’s tracker, however, shifted location after the initial rapid descent. The GPS data suggested the avalanche occurred close to 9am local time at 6,579 metres (21,585ft), between camps two and three on the west ridge of the 8,047-metre mountain, the most popular ascent route. The British adventurer Bear Grylls said the news of Purja’s death was “heartbreaking for so many climbers around the world who had a relationship with this remarkable and unique man”. In the 2023 documentary Finding Michael, Purja and Grylls were enlisted to recover the body of Michael Matthews, the youngest Briton to climb Everest, who disappeared on the mountain in 1999. Purja served in the British military for 16 years, 10 of them in the special forces. In 2018, he was awarded an MBE by the queen for his achievements in extreme high-altitude mountaineering. He also drew plaudits for twice risking his life to help others. The first time was while descending from Annapurna, when he led a rescue of fellow climber Chin Wui Kin, who had been separated from an accompanying expedition and left without food, water or oxygen for 40 hours. He later died in hospital. Less than a month later, Purja and his team rescued two climbers from a height of 8,400 metres, sacrificing their own supplementary oxygen to the climbers in need. “For me it’s not about ego,” he previously told the Guardian. “It’s about principles. You can’t call yourself a climber and not help in that situation.” The Prince of Wales said he was “truly saddened to hear of the tragic death” of Purja, adding that he “served with distinction” before “becoming one of the world’s greatest mountaineers”.

Italy says it’s temporarily suspending EU Schengen arrangement with Spain after 60,000 migrants reach Ceuta – as it happened

Just as we closed the blog, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has confirmed the move to suspend the free movement with on air and sea borders with Spain. She said it was “an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation.” In another sign that it may stop short of full border control for all arrivals from Spain (19:19), she said “the measure will be kept in force only for the time necessary, with particular attention to limiting any impact on summer tourist flows.” She added that “Italy is ready to support every European initiative to assist Spanish institutions as needed to restore full control of the Union’s external borders and to address the ongoing situation with determination.” “Defending borders means defending the safety of citizens, combating irregular immigration, and striking at the criminal networks that traffic human beings,” she said.

First Australian mass mortality event suspected as deadly bird flu virus rapidly escalates among native birds

More than 80 dead and sick birds seen on rocks off the South Australian coast are suspected to be the first mass mortality event from the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, only six weeks after the disease arrived in Australia. Authorities reported on Saturday that helicopter surveillance had revealed 49 dead greater crested terns on Baudin Rocks, near Robe, as well as 35 more sick terns. While some of the birds had been collected for testing, South Australia’s chief vet Skye Fruean said it was likely the first mass mortality event from the disease. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email South Australia also reported three suspected positive cases in other greater crested terns, including one inland at Monarto, suggesting the disease has begun moving away from the coast. The Monarto area is home to several poultry farms. Three silver gulls were also suspected positive, SA authorities said, adding to the first silver gull found a few days ago and confirmed positive by the CSIRO earlier on Saturday. Kate Millar, the chief executive of conservation charity BirdLife Australia, called it a “very significant escalation of the bird flu situation in Australia, and a very bleak milestone”. “Sadly, we’re at the beginning of a long and challenging battle and birds and wildlife are going to need all the help they can get,” she said. Jack Gough, the chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, said it now appeared the disease was “starting to take off” and “mirroring the experience in South America of early detections, then rapid increases in numbers and spread leading to mass mortality events in wildlife.” “We are still at the very early stages of this devastating disease spreading, but the possible first mass mortality coming just days after the virus was declared not eradicable indicates how quickly this could escalate,” he said. Fruean said there was “nothing we can do” to stop the spread of the disease, but that surveillance was working. The news came at the end of a significant week in the development of the disease when numbers jumped by 20 in just a few days to the current total of 53. Australia was the last continent to have the unwelcome arrival of a disease that has killed millions of birds and mammals around the world. Victoria this week confirmed its first cases of the virulent strain in a greater crested tern found in Portland, with the state joining Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland that have all recorded positive cases. On Saturday, Victorian authorities said samples from five crested terns had been sent to the CSIRO laboratory in Geelong, with preliminary testing suggesting more positive results. Five confirmed cases in birds at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island also raised concerns for the welfare of the area’s Australian sea lions – an endangered species. Tens of thousands of seals have died worldwide from the disease. But it has been the cases among silver gulls that has experts like Sean Dooley, the national affairs adviser at BirdLife Australia, concerned that the spread of the virus has now reached a critical new stage. “When people think of a seagull, they’re almost always thinking of the silver gull,” said Dooley. “They’re very common, and primarily they are coastal, but they do come inland and can turn up in Lake Eyre following floods,” said Dooley. Silver gulls are the second Australian native species to catch the disease, after dozens of detections in greater crested terns. But it is the silver gull’s behaviour and habits that have experts concerned because they scavenge from dead or dying animals, meaning they can easily pick up the disease from other sick birds. They also pick detritus from water bodies – lakes and flooded areas included – and these are known to be breeding grounds for the disease. “There is such a large population of silver gulls, and they move into other habitats. They could be the vector that takes bird flu inland,” says Dooley. “They’re also really successful in urban areas and could bring the disease into those bird populations.” Because Australia has a high concentration of unique birds, the susceptibility of many native species isn’t known. But the fears are there is no reason to think they would manage any better than birds overseas. Birds that flock around water have tended to be the hardest hit. Examples include sandwich terns, black-headed gulls and northern gannets in Europe and, in Peru, pelicans. Dooley said the mood at BirdLife Australia this week had been one of “trying to suppress that sinking, gut-churning feeling”. The winter season for birdwatchers along the coast had been one of the best in 10 years, said Dooley, with rare petrels turning up in numbers along the east coast. “Now that has been heavily tinged because probably among those were birds carrying H5N1.”

‘A symbol of resistance’: the fight to save treehouse built on no man’s land next to Berlin Wall

Sometimes the currents of history converge in a single spot. In Berlin, one of the most intriguing of those places is a small traffic island with a lovingly tended garden and a ramshackle two-storey structure called the Treehouse at the Wall. In 1983, Osman Kalin, a Turkish “guest worker”, was looking in his corner of the city cleaved by the Berlin Wall for a patch of earth in which to plant his onions, garlic and cucumbers. Virtually on his doorstep in the Kreuzberg district was a slice of no man’s land next to the concrete barrier and barbed wire. Although it sat in West Berlin, cold war logic meant the lot officially belonged to the communist East. The east-west border cut a sharp angle near a curved street called Bethaniendamm. The wall was built to slice straight across the road, which left a triangle-shaped scrap of land on the wrong side. Neither side could use it and so nearby residents commandeered it as a dump – until Kalin came along. Perhaps it took an outsider such as Kalin to see the potential in the postage stamp of fertile soil beneath the orphaned furniture and discarded drug paraphernalia. And it required a certain audacity to build something abutting the wall patrolled by East German soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders. Over the decades, the “guerrilla garden” came to symbolise a rebel spirit in dark times, the ingenuity of immigrants who were often made to feel unwelcome, and the tragedy and absurdity of great-power confrontation in a city where citizens on both sides just wanted to breathe free. That’s a lot of mythology for one place to hold, and four decades of upheaval have left their mark. Now supporters of the Treehouse at the Wall fear it could be demolished by city authorities as a public safety hazard and are rallying to save it. Kalin, one of the first generation of so-called Gastarbeiter brought by West Germany to plug a labour shortage, was “a remarkable figure”, said Suat Özkan, the general secretary of a Turkish community group in Berlin. “Perhaps he wasn’t a master of language, perhaps he wasn’t the perfect architect, perhaps he wasn’t the perfect artist, but he created something artistic – something that became totally unique.” Kalin, who was born in 1925 in Anatolia, arrived in West Germany in the late 1960s as a manual labourer. Under the programme, about 14 million guest workers came to the country between 1955 and 1973. Despite the temporary nature of the scheme, many stayed on. Nearly 3 million people of Turkish origin now live in Germany, about 200,000 of them in Berlin. Kalin at first squatted the land with his flower and vegetable garden and a small improvised shed. Then, eventually, against the odds, he won permission from the East German authorities to stay, so long as whatever he built there would not be taller than the wall. In time he replaced the shed with the larger “treehouse”, which despite the name is not up in the branches but built around a mature trunk that was on the site. After the city reunited in 1990, Kalin faced eviction orders but found an unlikely ally in the neighbouring St Thomas church, which located 18th-century papers showing it was the rightful owner of the land and allowed him to stay. Since Kalin’s death as a local hero in 2018, his son Mehmet has tended to the property and his father’s legacy. “Right when two global political systems were facing off,” Özkan said, Osman Kalin carried out an “act of defiance against the GDR regime, against the system, to show that it is possible to stand up and carry out a kind of revolution”. He added: “It’s a symbol of resistance as well as a symbol against racism, discrimination and hostility.” Özkan said that more than six decades after West Germany established the guest worker programme, it was long past time for the reunited nation to pay tribute to its waves of immigrants. “We still haven’t managed to construct a central memorial,” he said, to the foreign labourers who helped build the postwar economic miracle. “This house should serve as a kind of memorial.” Stefan Zeppenfeld, a historian who published a book in 2021 about Turkish labourers in West Berlin during the cold war, said it took decades for Germany to acknowledge its transformation into a “country of immigration”. He noted that migrant labourers like Kalin were relegated to neighbourhoods close to the wall, such as Kreuzberg, that became prime real estate after the wall’s fall in 1989. Zeppenfeld said the treehouse crystallised many aspects of what made up Berlin and its people. “The history of German division or the iron curtain is still absolutely crucial and defining for Berlin, for Berlin’s sense of identity,” he said. “And I find it absolutely fascinating that this building is still standing – it’s one of the few tangible legacies where we can actually see agency by Turkish guest workers as a real part of the cityscape.” As a first step, Özkan is planning an open-air exhibition on the chain-link fence surrounding the structure, complete with archival pictures and Kalin’s extraordinary life story. The tension with city authorities ahead of a Berlin election in September is that supporters of the treehouse want to maintain its scruffy authenticity while safety and legal concerns have forced a conversation about its structural integrity. Outside, the wooden facade is made up of listing, mismatched planks. Tongue-in-cheek Nato and Soviet flags whip from erected poles while plum and apple trees mark the seasons. Inside, a jumble of black-and-white photographs and construction tools point to the Kalin family’s past and future in their garden idyll. A donated chandelier lends an unexpected touch of elegance. Florian Schmidt, a Kreuzberg district councillor, said his office was working closely with the Turkish community and Kalin’s son Mehmet, who has done extensive repairs on the house, to “grant the necessary permits” for it to remain. “Due to the unusual situation – the site being a no man’s land and the lack of planning permission – use of the treehouse was initially prohibited,” Schmidt said in an emailed statement, noting that Mehmet had been granted a temporary exemption to do work there. “Issues relating to ownership rights are also being clarified.” Adrian Sampson, of Alternative Berlin Tours, which spotlights the city’s subculture and street art, was leading a group of visitors past the treehouse on a hot July day as he explained Kalin’s legacy. “His story is about three things: resistance, community spirit and multiculture all together there. And that’s what Kreuzberg is about,” said Sampson, who is originally from Melbourne. Asked about speculation that the site’s days could be numbered, he said: “I think it’d be an absolute shame, like really a pity for the city, because it just makes a lot of people happy.”

Noma restaurant prepares to reopen under new leadership after abuse allegations

The Copenhagen restaurant Noma – often ranked among the world’s best – is preparing to reopen next week under new leadership for the first time since its star chef and co-founder, René Redzepi, stepped down amid accusations of physical and psychological abuse. The new executive head chef, Pablo Soto, who has worked at the restaurant for nearly a decade, said while it remained “the same Noma” there had been some significant changes. Along with a new, evolving monthly menu to replace its previous seasonal one, he said there was now a heightened focus on enabling employees to live full lives. Redzepi, who has apologised to “those who have suffered under my leadership”, is no longer involved in the restaurant’s day-to-day running but Soto said he would still have a creative influence. Since storming the culinary establishment in 2003, Noma has been ranked as the world’s best restaurant five times and been awarded three Michelin stars, and has reinvented itself several times in the Danish capital and in pop-ups around the world. But earlier this year, as the restaurant launched a pop-up in Los Angeles, the entire organisation threatened to come crashing down after Redzepi was accused of creating abusive working conditions – including punching, screaming and public shaming – between 2009 and 2017. One of dozens of former employees who spoke to the New York Times said going to work “felt like going to war”. Redzepi said in response: “Although I don’t recognise all details in these stories, I can see enough of my past behaviour reflected in them to understand that my actions were harmful to people who worked with me. To those who have suffered under my leadership, my bad judgment or my anger, I am deeply sorry and I have worked to change.” A few days later, amid global media scrutiny, he announced he would “step away” from the restaurant and that he had resigned from his nonprofit, MAD. When Noma reopens in Copenhagen on Wednesday, it will face one of its biggest tests yet without Redzepi at the helm. Taking a break from intense final preparations for the reopening, Soto said: “It’s the same Noma. We are simply back home – that is what is different.” Before the allegations against Redzepi, Noma had planned to turn its Copenhagen restaurant, which closed in 2024, into a food laboratory. But after the international fallout, the decision was made to reopen it. “After Los Angeles, the best thing, in my opinion, was to come back to something stable. Our beautiful restaurant,” Soto told the Guardian. “This was a good decision for the team because of course what happened created instability – it was a difficult thing.” There had been moments in recent months when he feared for Noma’s future, he said. But he is now adamant it could regain its best-in-the-world status. “The team that has done it for so many years is still here. And that’s the number one marker of confidence right now,” he said. Responsibility for daily operations is now in the hands of Soto along with the chief executive, Annika de Las Heras, and Mette Brink Søberg, the head of research and development, with Redzepi turning his attention to creative projects. “That doesn’t mean he is banished from his company. We actually want his input,” Soto said. He insisted he was “not stepping into René’s former role,” adding: “This is still his restaurant. He is now simply moving to the side to continue on other creative ventures.” When the restaurant reopens, the 4,500 DKK (about £515) per head menu (plus an additional 2,000 DKK or £229 for wine pairing) will focus on what is available during that specific time of year, replacing its previous model where the restaurant revolved around three seasons: seafood in the winter, vegetables in spring and summer and forest and game in the autumn. “It’s a menu that is dynamic, that can change day to day in many ways,” Soto said. Initially, the restaurant will work with ingredients such as berries, flowers, vegetables and sweet seafood, moving on by October to wild mushrooms, game, stone fruits and red shellfish. Soto also plans to prioritise ensuring the staff of about 100 are able to live full lives outside work, including having children, pets and hobbies. “This is nothing new but is definitely something that is a priority, that people can continue their lives and continue to be at work,” he said.

‘Who could have done this?’ Mystery over Briton found dead in a suitcase in Athens

Two worlds separated by sheets of corrugated iron: one, a tree-lined road, bordered by a park and the home of Greece’s oldest sports club; the other a wasteland of derelict buildings and graffiti-covered walls in what was once a car park. It is here, on the wrong side of the divide, in Kypseli, a neighbourhood in central Athens, that the body of Elisabeth-Jane Ross was found, inside a suitcase last month. The 38-year-old who had longtime connections to the country – she reportedly worked in the charity sector – had arrived in the Greek capital on holiday almost three weeks earlier. “She was an angel,” a friend in her native Edinburgh told the Guardian. “Wherever she went, she did good. Who could possibly have done this?” The homeless man who made the grim discovery was among the few who ventured into the abandoned lot, located between an apartment block and design school on Evelpidon Street. It was midday on 18 July. What he did next – alerting authorities to the find – would shake up police forces in Greece and Scotland. “We’ve had the entire homicide division of the Greek FBI working night and day on the case,” said the police spokesperson Konstantina Dimoglidou. “We’re in contact with other police forces. We’re going to solve this.” But four days after Ross was publicly identified, with Greek authorities announcing the body was that of a Briton based on fingerprints that matched biometric data in the US, mystery continues to shroud the case. Initial examination of her remains proved inconclusive although pathologists deemed she had probably been dead for several days before the discovery. There were no evident injuries or sign of struggle on her body, raising further questions as to how she had died. On Friday, as local people left flowers at the site, police said investigators were intensifying their search of CCTV footage after it emerged that DNA analysis of the suitcase had not produced any evidence that could be linked to a suspect. “Whenever I pass by I think of that poor woman,” said Manos Andreou, a fashion designer who walks his dog each day along Evelpidon. “Until the area was closed off, I used to go in there and let her run around it, so it’s all been a bit of a shock. They say they’re looking at camera footage, they say they’re making progress, but can you see any cameras anywhere on this street?” The daughter of a lawyer, Ross, who had lived and worked in the US, flew into Athens from Edinburgh on 26 June. Until 15 July she had stayed with the son of a Greek friend in Keratsini, a working-class suburb close to the port of Piraeus. Before moving on, she had told him she would be spending a few days with friends from the US in Kypseli. Detectives, now desperately trying to reconstruct her movements, have expressed frustration at their inability to trace the Americans. Other members of the Briton’s social network in Athens have been interviewed at length, giving testimony that has been described as “incredibly helpful”. None are considered suspects. “July 15 was the last day she had contact with any of her friends,” said the police spokesperson. “Our investigations are focused on the intervening days and whom she may have met and where she stayed. The Americans have not been identified or found.” Police remain confident the suitcase was not at the crime scene more than 48 hours before its discovery on 18 July. They are also convinced that Ross died nearby in Kypseli although have stopped short of describing her death as a murder. “There is always the possibility that she died and then for some reason was hidden,” added Dimoglidou. “Our priority is to get to the bottom of who left the suitcase. Whoever they were was careful not to leave any fingerprints or DNA.” Adding to the mystery, it emerged that the Briton’s mobile phone was in operation and being used days after her death. Ross’s distraught father is reported to have told police he received text messages from his daughter, believing she was alive and well, until her body was identified, publicly, on Wednesday. Messages spoke of her “need to be alone”. Authorities, who have yet to retrieve the device, believe they were deliberately sent so that she would not be declared missing and “to buy time”. Investigators have located the phone’s digital footprint to Athens. One source said: “We have to presume that the person who had her phone and then sent these messages, days after pathologists believe she probably died, is connected to the crime and we cannot rule out that they knew Ms Ross.” More than 60 people in the Greek police department’s homicide division have been assigned to the case. Urgency is such that investigators have also requested that laboratory tests be fast-tracked to determine the cause of death. “At such times, when there is advanced decay because of heat or the conditions in which a body is kept, only toxicological tests and in-depth examination of [vital organ] tissues can determine, exactly, how a person died,” said Grigoris Leon, who heads the Hellenic Society of Forensic Medicine. There would be answers, he said, that would unearth the truth. “I have no doubt they will come but it won’t be easy and it will take time.”