Greek authorities Saturday assessed the damage from severe flooding in the southern Attica region, which includes Athens, in the after-effects of a Caribbean hurricane.

There were no victims from Friday night's flooding but one town, Acharnes, declared a state of emergency and suffered serious damage to its town centre. Several families were moved to emergency housing.

Firefighters received more than 850 calls, with cars blocked by rising water in the port city of Piraeus and in the northern Athens suburb of Ilion.

Around 300 cars were swept away in floodwaters after 14 centimetres (5.5 inches) of rain fell in some 90 minutes.

"It was like a sea raining down," Andreas Pachatouridis, the mayor of Peristeri, the seventh largest town in Greece, told state-run news agency ANA.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras ordered the release of emergency funds to help deal with the damage.

The storms affected the whole of Greece including the islands, particularly Rhodes. The depression was expected to head east towards Turkey.

Hurricane Gonzalo swept through the Caribbean and the southeastern coast of the United States more than a week ago, killing one person in the Dutch territory of St Maarten.