Category Archives: Greece

Turkey flood deaths rise as fresh fires erupt on Greek island of Evia

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Twenty-seven killed in Turkish flash flooding, with southern Europe bracing for more extreme weather

The death toll from flash floods in Turkey has reached 27 and fresh wildfires erupted on the ravaged Greek island of Evia, as southern Europe braces for more extreme weather events caused by human-made climate change.

Record Mediterranean heatwaves fuelled blazes that have devastated parts of Italy, Turkey and Algeria, with Spain and Portugal on high alert, while Turkey’s Black Sea region has been hit by some of the worst floods in living memory.

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Drone footage shows devastating aftermath of wildfires – video

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Devastating wildfires have ravaged large areas in southern Europe as the region endures its most extreme heatwave in three decades. Several people have died in Greece, Turkey and Italy, with many more injured. Huge fires also have been burning across Peru as well as northern Russia, with smoke from forest fires in Siberia reaching the north pole

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Wildfires rage in Greece and Italy as EU mounts firefighting operation

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Week of blazes forces evacuations and brings devastating scale of destruction to large areas of southern Europe

The devastating scale of destruction from a week of wildfires in Greece and Italy was being assessed as the EU mounted one of its largest firefighting operations ever and smoke from forest fires in Siberia reached the north pole.

As UN experts on Monday said global warming was advancing faster than feared and that humanity was “unequivocally” to blame, firefighters and local residents battled massive blazes on the island of Evia, east of Athens, for a seventh straight day.

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Thousands flee Greek island as wildfires raze forest and homes

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Firefighters tackle blazes on two fronts on Evia as heatwave-driven devastation across southern Europe continues

Thousands of people have fled wildfires that are destroying vast swathes of pine forest and razing homes on Greece’s second-largest island, Evia, as devastating summer blazes rage from southern Europe to Siberia.

“We have ahead of us another difficult evening, another difficult night,” Greece’s deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, said on Sunday, adding that nearly a week after the blazes started, strong winds were driving two major fire fronts in the north and south of the island.

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Sky glows red over ferry evacuating people from Greek island fire – video

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The sky over the island of Evia turned red and orange as people boarded an evacuation ferry after days of fires in the area.

Dozens of wildfires have burned in Greece after the longest heatwave in 30 years, which sent temperatures soaring to 45C.

The Greek coastguard said three patrol boats, four navy vessels, one ferry and various tourist, fishing and private boats were on standby to carry out more potential evacuations from villages on the island's northern tip.

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‘Apocalyptic’ scenes hit Greece as Athens besieged by fire

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The city is surrounded by flames. On the ground, there are tales of heroism – and fear for the future

Little had prepared any of us on the Athens-bound flight for the sight of the great fire-induced clouds that swept either side of the plane as it made its descent on Friday.

News of the extreme heat engulfing Greece had spread beyond its borders all week, packaged in increasingly desperate language. Temperatures were breaking records few had ever imagined. If Monday was bad, then Tuesday was worse. In some parts of the country, the mercury had hit 47C (117F), with thermal cameras on drones recording the ground temperature in downtown Athens at 55C.

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‘Greece has burned’: thousands flee Athens suburb as wildfire spreads – video

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Thousands of people were forced to flee Thrakomakedones, a suburb of the Greek capital, after strong winds spread wildfires that burned down homes.

More than 50 wildfires are burning across Greece as the worst heatwave in more than 30 years has hit the country. 

Tens of thousands of acres of forestland, homes and buildings have been destroyed and the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has promised a radical shift in the country's approach to the climate emergency.

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Eight dead as wildfires continue to rage across southern Europe

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Deaths occur in Turkey with Italy and Greece also badly hit and thousands evacuated

Eight people have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes as extreme wildfires continue to rage in parts of southern Europe.

Related: The photo that has come to define Turkey’s wildfires

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Greek prime minister says ‘worst is yet to come’ as wildfires rage around Athens – video

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday that emergency services faced a difficult night ahead as wildfires north of Athens leaped back to life and westerly winds were set to strengthen.

'Unfortunately the worst is yet to come and the night ahead seems menacing. Tomorrow we expect strong western winds in many areas of our country,' the Greek prime minister said in a special televised address.

Mitsotakis urged people to comply with evacuation orders and avoid unnecessary trave. Authorities warned of more blazes on Friday as temperatures hovered around 40C.

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Greece fires: 150 houses destroyed by wildfires as monks refuse to leave stricken island

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Villages on Evia are evacuated as blaze rages across the island, and fires also threaten suburbs of Athens and historic Olympia

At least 150 houses have been destroyed by a raging fire that surrounded a monastery and a dozen villages on the Greek island of Evia, one of over 100 blazes burning in the country.

Firefighters were also continuing to battle a blaze near Athens on Thursday morning, while the mayor of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, pleaded for help as flames threatened the site.

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Greece: thousands of residents flee as wildfires reach outskirts of Athens – video

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Thousands of residents in the northern outskirts of Athens have been forced to leave their homes as a forest wildfire reached residential areas. The blaze sent a huge cloud of smoke over Athens and prompted multiple evacuations near Tatoi, 13 miles to the north. 

It comes as Greece experiences the worst heatwave since 1987, according to local authorities. Temperatures have reached 42C in parts of the Greek capital

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Turkey appeals for help to fight wildfires as heatwave continues

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Wildfires break out across much of southern Europe, with temperature reaching 45C in Greece

Turkey has launched an international appeal for help in taming fires raging across the country that have killed eight people in recent days, as what has been described as one of the worst heatwaves in decades intensifies in south-east Europe.

Following criticism of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after it emerged that Turkey has no firefighting planes, authorities in Istanbul were promised water-dropping planes from the European Union. The country is battling deadly wildfires along its coastline for a sixth day.

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Tourists evacuated from Pescara as Italy records more than 800 wildfires

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Wildfires burn across Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey in heatwave bringing temperatures above 40C

At least five people have been wounded and holidaymakers evacuated after wildfires devastated a pine wood near a beach in Pescara, Italy, as one of the worst heatwaves in decades swept across south-east Europe.

A five-year-old girl was taken to hospital but her condition is not believed to be life-threatening, according to reports.

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The Guardian view on Fortress Europe: a continent losing its moral compass

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The increasingly draconian approach to irregular migration betrays the spirit of the 1951 refugee convention

Seventy years ago, the 1951 UN refugee convention established the rights of refugees to seek sanctuary, and the obligations of states to protect them. Increasingly, it seems that much of Europe is choosing to commemorate the anniversary by ripping up some of the convention’s core principles.

So far this year, close to 1,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean, more than four times the death toll for the same period in 2020. Many will have been economic migrants. Others will have been fleeing persecution. Increasingly, Europe does not care. All were “irregular”. And all must be discouraged and deterred through a strategy of cruelty.

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Tourists rescued from burning Med resorts by flotilla of boats

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Six dead from wildfires raging across Turkey, Italy and Greece as temperatures hit 40C

Holidaymakers have been evacuated from beaches by rescue boats in Turkey after wildfires threatened hotels in the Aegean resort of Bodrum.

Coastguard vessels were joined by private boats and yachts to bring the tourists to safety, according to Turkish media on Saturday. Videos posted online showed people wheeling their suitcases along the road while smoke from forest fires billowed into the sky.

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Greece sends police to Covid hotspot islands to step up controls

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Party islands Mykonos and Ios could be shut down as Delta variant infection rates surge among young people

Greece has begun deploying police units to holiday island hotspots as the country’s tourism season moves into high gear amid a worrying spread of coronavirus variants.

Authorities moved to beef up police presence on party isles such as Mykonos and Ios as concerns mounted over local entrepreneurs failing to comply with health measures aimed at curbing the pandemic. “The Delta variant has meant that every country is dealing with the fourth wave now and not as expected in November,” the Greek tourism minister Haris Theoharis told the Guardian. “While hotels and family-type venues are implementing protocols diligently, there’s more congestion than we would like to see in bars, especially among the younger crowd ... so we are trying to ensure some balance is kept.”

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Kostis, beloved local monk seal, found slain in waters near Alonnisos, Greece

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Conservationists demand killer is found after creature harpooned from close range

An orphaned monk seal known as Kostis, who had become a local celebrity in Greece after being rescued by fishers three years ago, has been found harpooned from close range, prompting outrage from conservationists and demands to find his killer.

MOm, the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, a not-for-profit group that works to protect the endangered species, said Kostis had been deliberately killed in the waters near Alonnisos, in the northern Sporades islands.

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Turkish Cypriot leader: ‘The only way forward is a two-state solution’

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Self-avowed nationalist Ersin Tatar in ebullient mood despite embargos, isolation and political restrictions

It’s been nine months since Ersin Tatar assumed the presidency of the self-declared Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus and, like his predecessors, he has found little has changed.

Embargos, international isolation and political restrictions remain perennial problems for his unrecognised state. Even today, nearly 38 years after the territory proclaimed independence, foreign dignitaries pass through his colonial-era office and still object to being photographed next to the flags on his desk.

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Unease in the air as Cyprus ‘ghost town’ rises from the ruins of war

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Varosha, once a chic resort, is being rebuilt in the latest move of Turkey’s power play in the eastern Mediterranean

“Do you want to ride or walk?” asks Seyki Mindik. The municipal employee points under the fierce July sun towards the multicoloured bicycles stacked within view of the police barrier at the entrance to Varosha. “There is so much to see. Tourists love it here.”

Not so long ago the very notion of the eastern Mediterranean’s most famous ghost town being resurrected as a 21st-century theme park would have been unthinkable. For more than four decades there has been almost no movement among ruins of war left to rot with the passage of time.

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