Mati, Greece

Wildfire recriminations: As the death toll from last week’s wildfires around Athens rose to 93, with 25 people still missing, the Greek government was accused of institutional failings that had exacerbated the scale of the disaster. Last week, the defence minister, Panos Kammenos, was heckled when he became the first high-ranking official to visit the village of Mati, which was destroyed by the inferno. “You left us to God’s mercy, there’s nothing left,” shouted one resident. Locals say no evacuation order was given, and that efforts to tackle the blaze started too late (possibly as a result of cuts to the fire service). For his part, Kammenos pointed the finger at Mati residents who’d built unlicensed houses that blocked escape routes to the sea. His critics countered that if the state were more efficient, or less corrupt, this illegal development would have been torn down.

Last week, ministers said there were “serious indications” that the fire – now believed to be the worst in Europe since the Second World War – was the result of arson. But the Federation of Firefighters rejected this, saying it was probably started accidentally by someone burning wood. It added that its advice to issue an evacuation order had been ignored; it also criticised the meteorological service for failing to predict the high winds that grounded firefighting aircraft and fanned the flames.