FIRE KILLS DOZENS
A WILDFIRE has killed at least 50 people and injured scores more as it swept through a small resort town near Athens, trapping families as they tried to flee to the beach.
The fire in Mati was by far Greece’s worst since flames devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in 2007, killing dozens.
It broke out on Monday and was still burning in some areas yesterday.
People scrambled to the sea as the blaze closed in near the shore. Hundreds were rescued by passing boats but the fire moved too fast for others.
“I was briefed by a rescuer that he saw the shocking picture of 26 people tightly huddled in a field some 30m from the beach,” Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, told Skai TV.
“They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didn’t make it in time.”
Mati is in the Rafina region, a popular spot for holidaymakers, particularly pensioners and children at camps, 29km east of the capital.
The 26 deaths came on top of the more than 20 reported by government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos.
One of the youngest victims was thought to be a six-monthold child who died of smoke inhalation, officials said. Of the 156 people injured, 11 were in intensive care, they added.
The coastguard said four bodies were retrieved from the sea. In total, coastguard and other vessels rescued 696 people who had fled to beaches. Boats plucked another 19 people alive from the water.
“It is a difficult night for Greece,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.
Greece issued an urgent appeal for help to tackle fires that raged out of control in several places across the country, destroying homes and disrupting major transport links.
Cyprus and Spain offered aid after Greece said it needed air and land assets from EU.
Authorities said they would use an unmanned drone from the US to monitor and track any suspicious activity.
A hillside of homes was gutted by flames east of Athens.