Tourists, residents evacuated by boat in Greece as wildfires rage

In Turkey, firefighters were battling 16 wildfires on Wednesday, the eighth successive day of fires. Athens residents were told to stay indoors as a thick cloud of smoke hung over the city from fires near the town of Varympompi, north of the capital, which damaged scores of buildings and destroyed more than 80 cars after breaking out on Tuesday.

Residents and holidaymakers on the Greek island of Evia fled to the shore to be evacuated by boat on Wednesday as a rapidly spreading wildfire tore through surrounding pine forests, leaving gutted buildings in its wake. The fire, worsened by changing winds, has forced authorities on the island near Athens to evacuate several villages since late Tuesday. Residents and tourists in Rovies, a seaside village, were told to evacuate near the sea on Wednesday.

"It's close (to Rovies village). It's difficult," Civil Protection Authority Spokesperson Spyros Georgiou said. Three firefighters were slightly hurt, the fire brigade said.

Tassos Baltas, a volunteer rescuer who helped authorities move people from the villages to safety, said it was "raining ashes in Halkida", Evia's capital, some 100 km (62 miles) away. Fires that had threatened houses on the northern outskirts of Athens on Tuesday eased slightly. But with Greece facing its most severe heatwave in 30 years, the risk remained high for the next few days in most parts of the country, authorities said.

Temperatures hovered above 40 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) for the third day. "The weather conditions are extreme," Deputy Citizens' Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said in a televised address on Wednesday. "We should remain on alert. We should avoid any - but any - activity that could cause a fire."

Reinforcements were due to arrive from Cyprus, with fires also burning in the Peloponnese, in the regions of Messinia and Mani and in Ilia, close to Ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games. "We're living frightening moments in Ilia," western Greece Governor Nektarios Farmakis said.

Europe has been experiencing extreme weather this summer, from heavy flooding in the north to severe heatwaves and fires in parts of the Mediterranean, with Turkey hit by its most intense blazes on record. In Turkey, firefighters were battling 16 wildfires on Wednesday, the eighth successive day of fires.

Athens residents were told to stay indoors as a thick cloud of smoke hung over the city from fires near the town of Varympompi, north of the capital, which damaged scores of buildings and destroyed more than 80 cars after breaking out on Tuesday. "I saved my pets, that's why I stayed," said one Varympompi resident, Panagiotis, standing among burned cars and blackened pine trees. "I have goosebumps just talking about it; all the homes around me burned, nothing's left." (Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris and Lefteris Papadimas, Writing by Karolina Tagaris, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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