Greece’s largest-ever evacuation as tourists flee Rhodes wildfires: Top points
Tens of thousands of people fled Greek island of Rhodes after massive wildfires. As tourists scrambled to get back home, wildfires were also reported in Corfu- another popular Greek island. Land and sea evacuations were underway as firefighters tackled wildfires on Rhodes. The blazes come during the peak tourism season resulting in the country’s largest-ever wildfire evacuation.
Rhodes is one of Greece’s most popular holiday destinations, particularly for British, German and French tourists.
Other Greek islands have also been reporting similar problems. A wildfire broke out on Greece’s second-largest island, Evia, located in central Greece’s eastern coast.
The Greek island of Corfu, another favourite with foreign tourists, was struggling with its own wildfires.
A rescue operation was underway at Nissaki beach on the northeast of the island as six coastguard vessels and seven private boats had already taken 59 people off the beach, AFP reported.
Greece has witnessed extreme heat and fires have burned for nearly a week on Rhodes where winds of up to 49 kilometres (31 miles) per hour made efforts to bring the flames under control difficult.
“This is the biggest fire evacuation ever in Greece. We had to evacuate an area of 30,000 people,” Konstantia Dimoglidou, Greek police spokeswoman told AFP.
Police said the authorities had transported 16,000 people across land, and evacuated 3,000 by sea. Others had to flee by road.
German travel giant Tui suspended all its inbound passenger flights to Rhodes but said that it would send empty planes to help evacuate tourists.
British carrier Jet2 also said it had cancelled “all flights and holidays” to the island.
Authorities warned that it would take several days to contain the flames as more than 260 firefighters were battling the fire with Croatia, France, Slovakia and Turkey aiding the process.
Greek foreign ministry and embassies in Greece set up a station at the Rhodes airport to help tourists.
