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Massive fires kill 12 in Greece
24/08/2007 20:22 - (SA)
Athens - Massive fires whipped by gale-force winds raged out of control in southern Greece on Friday, killing 12 people and forcing the evacuation of parts of a town and several villages, authorities said.
Across the country, more than 150 fires were burning.
The fire department said at least six people were killed when they were trapped in their cars near the village of Komotheika in the western Peloponnese, where a fire broke out on Friday afternoon near the town of Zaharo.
Police in the town said at least three villages in the region had been evacuated, while media reports said some villages had been surrounded by flames and local hospitals had been put on alert.
In Greece's deadliest day of forest fires for years, another six people died in the southern Peloponnese in a massive fire near the town of Areopolis.
Five bodies were found near a hotel on the outskirts of the town, about 280km south of Athens in the Peloponnese, the fire department said. Authorities were working to identify the remains.
A sixth person in the region - a firefighter - died of a heart attack, the department said.
All the hotels in Areopolis and part of the town were evacuated, as well as several villages in the area.
Hot, dry winds that at times reached gale force fanned the flames and prevented firefighting planes from taking off, leaving only ground crews to fight the fires, occasionally helped by helicopters.
Greece appealed to the European Union to "send any help they can" to fight the fires, said acting Interior Minister Spyros Flogaitis.
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