Greece is renowned across the world for its beautiful white sandy beaches with crystal clear waters.

However, panic has now erupted as spot checks by teams of Greek and international inspectors saw 22 beaches in different parts of Greece stripped of their Blue Flag certification during surprise visits.

According to the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature, the beaches no longer met the standards for quality, safety, services and environmental management criteria.

However, the quality of the swimming waters remains excellent as by the standards of the programme.

Some of the disgraced beaches are in popular tourist destinations including Rhodes, Crete, Mykonos and Corfu. 

The four Crete beaches that lost their Blue Flag status are: Amnisos Beach of  Hersonissos , Lerapetra 1 of Municipality of Ierapetra, Makrygialou Beach of Municipality of Ierapetra and Myrtos Beach of Municipality of Ierapetra.

Three beaches on the island of Naxos and the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece also lost their Blue Flag award while the rest are distributed across different parts of the country.

Inspections will continue across all awarded beaches in the country with most of these visits being a surprise.

The programme has warned that if further shortcomings are discovered, more beaches will face a similar fate.