Three firefighters have died battling blazes on Crete, where a 15-kilometre fire front prompted the Red Cross to estimate that around 2,000 holidaymakers were evacuated, after two colleagues were found dead in their truck earlier this week.
Strong winds, with gusts reaching 130 km/h, fanned 51 new fires in 24 hours, bringing the number of active blazes to 73 by Friday evening, the Hellenic Fire Service said. The greater Athens area was placed on the highest red alert as flames spread across a multi-kilometre front west of the capital, where more than 300 firefighters battled a blaze near the resort of Porto Germeno that charred at least 4,000 hectares. Hundreds of residents and tourists were evacuated by boat as houses were destroyed in the suburb of Haidari and coastal villages.
Fires also burned on the Peloponnese and Aegean islands including Paros, Kalymnos and Andros. In France, a resurgent blaze in Var devastated 1,000 hectares, while authorities lifted evacuation orders near Bordeaux after 42,000 hectares of forest burned.