Wildfires force locals, tourists to evacuate Greek islands

Tour operators began flying home vacationersas wildfires raged on the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday and officials said the threat of further fires was high in almost every region of the country.

Fires burning since Wednesday on Rhodes forced the evacuation of 19,000 people over the weekend as an inferno reached coastal resorts on the island's southeast. A wildfire also forced more than 2,000people to evacuate from the island of Corfu.

Rhodes and Corfu are among Greece's top destinations for tourists, mainly from Britain and Germany.

"We are in the seventh day of the fire and it hasn't been controlled," Rhodes Deputy Mayor Konstantinos Taraslias told state broadcaster ERT.

"For the next few weeks we must be on constant alert," Greek Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament. "The climate crisis is already here;it will manifest itselfeverywhere in the Mediterranean with greater disasters."

After leaving hotels and resorts, many tourists spent the night on the airport floor, waiting for repatriation flights, the first of which came overnight.

From Sunday until 6 a.m. on Monday, 1,489 tourists were flown back, mainly to Britain, Germany and Italy, Greek government spokespersonPavlos Marinakis said, describing the evacuation as the largest undertaken in the country.

That included the U.K. and Ireland arm of travelcompany TUItaking three planeloads of passengers back to Britain overnight.

British Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell estimated that up to 10,000 Britons were on the island.

"It was quite a bit of a struggle on the beach with the smoke," said John Hope, a tourist from Manchester, England.

WATCH |Thousands flee as Corfu hit by fires:

Thousands flee as Corfu hit by fires

1 year ago

Duration 0:40

The popular tourist island of Corfu is the latest location in Greece to order evacuations in the face of devastating fires

Austrian tourist Mario Wiese said he had spent two days at Rhodes airport and hadto sort out his own return flight to Germany on Monday evening.

"We have been lying here for two days. There are no blankets, nothing. There are children lying here who need milk," he said. "I had to organize everything myself because no one looks after us here. I don't understand it."

Repatriation flights

Tour operators Jet2, TUI and Corendon cancelled flights leaving for Rhodes. Britain's easyJet said it was operating two repatriation flights on Monday from Rhodes to London's Gatwick airport, in addition to the nine flights already operating on the route.

The airline said it will add another repatriation flight on Tuesday.

Ryanair said its flights to and from Rhodes were operating as normal. Its chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, said the airline was monitoring the situation on Monday.

"It's not necessary at this period in time [to put on more flights];we're letting people book onto earlier flights."

Evacuations by sea were underway on Corfu, where about 59 people were taken off a beach on Sunday. Footage from the island showed the skyline ablaze from fires in a mountain region.

On Rhodes, some vacationers said they walked for kilometresin scorching heat to reach safety. The fires left blackened trees and dead animals lay in the road near burnedcars.

Greece is often hit by wildfires during the summer months but climate change has led to more extreme heat waves across southern Europe.

Civil Protection said practically every region of Greece was facing the threat of wildfires on Monday ranging from "high, very high or state of alert."

Temperatures over the past week have exceeded 40 Cin many parts of the country and were forecast to persist in the coming days.

Emergency services were also dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens.