Greece, Turkiye battle wildfires

Residential areas near the Greek capital Athens had to be evacuated over the weekend as firefighters struggled to contain the latest large-scale wildfires that have broken out across the country.

The Guardian newspaper said that there had been reports locally of extra police being drafted in because of the fear of looters going through houses abandoned by their owners as they were forced out by the extreme heat.

Temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius were forecast on Sunday, with strong winds adding to the problems, leading to the Greek authorities requesting the loan of six extra firefighting aircraft under the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism.

"We have injured firefighters, human lives were put at risk, properties have been burned, and forest areas have been destroyed," said the country's Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Giannis Kefalogiannis.

Giorgos Psathas, mayor of the municipality of Dirfyon-Messapion, described the destruction in his area as "incalculable", amid reports of communities being left without electricity following the destruction of power lines.

Last month, fires on the island of Chios destroyed 4,700 hectares of land, and earlier this month 5,000 tourists had to be evacuated from the island of Crete, before the latest outbreak of another five significant blazes.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the authorities had been "called to engage in a titanic battle, simultaneously responding to dozens of wildfires across the country", and vowed that the state would "stand by (the) side" of people who had seen their properties destroyed.

Neighboring Turkiye has also been suffering in the extreme heat, with the country's environment ministry saying that on Friday, a new record temperature reading of 50.5 degrees Celsius had been recorded at Silopi, in the southeast of the country, close to the borders with Iraq and Syria, a whole one degree hotter than the previous highest recorded temperature, in 2023.

Advancing wildfires led to the abandonment of apartments in the popular tourist resort of Antalya in the south of the country, which experienced its highest city center temperature since records began, in 1930.

Last week, at least 10 people, from both the emergency services and forestry organizations, died trying to contain fires in Eskisehir province in the west of the country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye was "faced with a truly great disaster" because of the blazes, and that 25,000 personnel were involved in fighting them, backed up by 6,000 ground support vehicles, 105 helicopters and 27 planes.