Greece wildfires: PM warns of 'difficult days ahead'

Panos Varouchas, Corfu's deputy mayor for tourism, said in comments to DW that most of those evacuated on the island had returned to their residences.

"Everything is under control and 95% of the people are back to their residences, are back to their hotels," he said.

"We haven't had this occasion for at least the last 35 years, so it was a crash test," he said. "The good thing is we had [put out] the notice a few hours before, so everything went (according to) plan."

Varouchas said that no injuries were reported.

The official said that Greece had developed civil protection units during the COVID-19 pandemic that will help the country to manage the consequences of global warming.

Greek emergency services on Monday were dealing with wildfires on the island of Evia, which is east of Athens.

A fire was also raging in the town of Aigio on the southern Peloponnese peninsula.

A wildfire west of Athens, which has damaged more than 100 houses and businesses, has been burning since July 17.

Fire crews have battled over 500 fires around the country for 12 straight days, Greece's civil protection minister said.

The Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry has issued a travel warning for the Greek islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia, the Reuters news agency reported.

The ministry on Monday upgraded the travel advisory from green to yellow as a result of the forest fires.

Tens of thousands of people have already fled blazes on the three islands, with tourists scrambling to catch evacuation flights home.

German travel giant TUI says it has deployed six additional planes to fly German and British tourists out of the island of Rhodes.

The firm said that another flight will be sent to bring Danish travelers to the town of Billund in southern Denmark.

"Further deployments have already been implemented and are planned, we are informing our guests on site and organising all necessary steps," Thomas Ellerbeck, who is a member of TUI's executive committee, said.

Rhodes is visited by about 2.5 million tourists each year and is one of Greece's most popular holiday destinations.

Authorities have evacuated nearly 2,500 people from the island of Corfu as Greece battles with major wildfires.

This included 1,000 tourists and 1,500 residents.

The fire on the island was brought under control on Monday, with evacuations being implemented as a precautionary measure.

British airline Jet2 said it was sending three extra flights on Monday to bring around 600 people back to the United Kingdom out of Rhodes.

It said that the repatriation flights would go to Manchester, Leeds Bradford and Birmingham.

"We have a significantly expanded presence in Rhodes, with a huge team of experienced colleagues providing all the support we can for our customers," the firm said.

According to the UK government, there are about 7,000-10,000 Britons currently on Rhodes.

Meanwhile, UK airline EasyJet said it would also operate two repatriation flights on Monday and one on Tuesday in addition to its usual schedule.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Athens would remain on "constant alert" and likened the wildfires raging in Greece to a "war."

"For the next few weeks we must be on constant alert. We are at war, we will rebuild what we lost, we will compensate those who were hurt," Mitsotakis told parliament.

"The climate crisis is already here, it will manifest itself everywhere in the Mediterranean with greater disasters," he said, warning that the nation faced "another three difficult days ahead" before high temperatures are forecast to ease.

The country is experiencing a heat wave that has significantly heightened the risk of wildfires.

sdi/nm (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)