Wildfires Leave 27 Dead and 43,000 Hectares Burned in Greece

The forest fires that have raged in Greece since Saturday have already destroyed more than 43,000 hectares and have claimed the lives of 28 people, 27 of whom may be migrants who burned to death in a forest near the border with Turkey.

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On Tuesday, the Immigration Minister Dimitris Kairides confirmed that 18 deceased people are immigrants and assured that this tragedy “confirms the dangers of irregular immigration.”

“All the bodies were found in groups of two or three at a distance of about five hundred meters. Apparently they were trying to escape from the fire,” coroner Pavlos Pavlidi said, adding that two children were among the dead.

Kairides did not comment on eight bodies located together in the Dadia area, nor on another migrant found dead this morning.

The Alarm Phone NGO alerted that it had received a call for help from 250 migrants trapped on islets in the Evros river between Turkey and Greece.

This happens in one of the most affected areas. The Athens National Meteorological Observatory stated that 38,000 hectares have been ravaged by fire so far in the Evros zone.

Currently, firefighters are fighting against the natural disaster in very adverse conditions due to strong wind, high temperatures and drought. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis explained that only today 63 fires have been declared, 14 of them in the Evros area.

One of the most serious fires started on Saturday near Alexandroupoli, where authorities evacuated patients from this port city’s main hospital on Thursday.

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