Attica Wildfires In Greece: Over 60 Dead, Including Children Escaping Flames

Death toll due to the Attica wildfires that tore through Athens, Greece, has risen to 60 as 26 people, including children, were found dead in a field near Mati area, east of the city, Nikos Economopoulos, head of the country’s Red Cross, said.

The official twitter account of the Fire Brigade in Greece confirmed they were called to intervene in 73 urban fires and 47 forest fires. The fire damaged buildings, disrupted major transport links and forced evacuation of people from their homes. No official figures on the total number of evacuations were available.

The 26 bodies were found on a plot of land between two houses which were near the beach. The news was confirmed by Rafina-Pikermo mayor Evangelos Bournos, who said the whole settlement was wiped out from the map. He added around 1,000 houses were destroyed in the area.

A correspondent for the New York Times said in a tweet some of the newly found bodies were locked in an embrace.

Earlier, the Red Cross had said 24 were dead and 156 were injured, of which 11 were hospitalized. The New York Times correspondent’s tweet also mentioned 16 among the injured were children.

A state of emergency was declared in the Athens metropolitan area due to the fire.

A fire brigade spokeswoman said, “Due to the intensity of the fires and the dangers they pose our country submitted a request through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism for international assistance with air and land assets.”

President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, tweeted the EU Commission “will spare no effort to help Greece and the Greek people.”

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a trip to Bosnia and returned to Greece due to the incident. "We are dealing with something completely asymmetric," Tsipras said, "We will do whatever is humanly possible to control it.”

He said more than 600 firefighters and 300 vehicles were currently working to control and extinguish the wildfires.

Vice mayor of the town of Megara, said, "The fire rages unabated. We urge residents to head towards Corinth to protect themselves and their children."

The first fire broke out in a forest near a coastal settlement Kineta, about 34 miles west of Athens, on Monday, after which people were evacuated from the area.

According to reports, around 220 firefighters responded to the scene. Five water-dropping planes and seven helicopters tried to put the fire out from the air.

The smoke from the fire drastically reduced the visibility on the roads and a 12-mile section on two highways linking Peloponnese with central Greece was closed down.

Another major fire broke out Monday afternoon in the Penteli and Rafina areas, situated northeast of Athens. Farmland and woods on the southern island of Crete were burned by a third wildfire. During the night, other fires broke out elsewhere, while the first one kept raging on around the capital through Tuesday morning.

Though forest fires were common in Greece during the dry, hot summers, the last time the country faced fires of such magnitude was in 2007. Greece is facing extremely high temperatures this year, which went up to 40 degree Celsius recently.