Thousands flee Greece's beach resorts as fires fuelled by gale force winds rip through homes

Wildfires outside Athens have forced thousands to flee seaside resorts, closed highways and gutted vacation homes, ITV News' John Irvine reports

Thousands of people have fled Greek coastal resorts as wind-fuelled fires ripped through the countryside.

Evacuation orders were put in place for at least six seaside towns as two major wildfires edged closer to towns, spurred on by gale force winds of 45mph.

Holiday homes have been destroyed and main roads were shut as people were rescued from the ongoing fire.

Evacuees gathered along the coastline or were put up in schools and hotels.

The coast guard was also deployed to smoke-heavy beachfronts.

Before nightfall on Monday, water-dropping planes and helicopters tackled the flames near Lagonisi, some 25 miles southeast of Athens.

The second large wildfire broke out in a wooded area near the resort town of Loutraki, 55 miles to the west of the capital.

Trees are being chopped down in an attempt to stop the spread of the blaze.

A children's summer camp with 1,500 in attendance and rehabilitation centre for the elderly were both evacuated, local officials said.

The strong and changeable winds plus the mountainous terrain were slowing the firefighting effort, fire service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said.

He added: “The conditions are changing constantly and this has to be matched by our response. We have ordered multiple evacuations.”

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the risk posed by wildfires this month as “extremely difficult” to deal with, while on a visit to Brussels.

“We have always had wildfires and we always will have them. But with the effects of the climate crisis, we are experiencing fires with increasing intensity,” Mr Mitsotakis said.

Greater Athens and much of southern Greece were on the second highest level of alert for wildfires on Monday and Tuesday.

The country has sweltered under a four-day heat wave that eased over the weekend but more extreme heat is expected later in the week.

People in areas affected by the two fires received mobile phone alerts from the Civil Protection Ministry.

Loutraki Mayor Giorgos Gionis said municipal workers were also assisting in the evacuations, adding that mobile reception outages had slowed their operation.

More fires are expected to spark in Greece's Attica Peninsula and Eastern Peloponnese.

There is also "extreme danger" of fire in several areas of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia.

It is forecast temperatures will continue to be over 40 degrees in Athens and Rome until Friday, according to the Met Office.

Italy is expected to break its hottest ever temperature record in the coming days, with the heat being around 10C hotter than the average for this time of year.

There are currently three heat domes stretching across the earth's northern hemisphere, causing extreme heat in the United States, The Mediterranean and Asia.

Phoenix in the US has faced a relentless streak of 19 dangerously hot days where temperatures soared to 43.3 C or more.

The atmospheric conditions are allowing persistent areas of high pressure to become established.

These increase the heat and can last for weeks.

The UK is not covered by the area of high pressure so is unlikely to see the extreme heatwave.

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