By DPA
Athens : At least 19 people were killed and hundreds evacuated early Saturday from wildfires that spread across the Greek mainland and islands, causing widespread destruction.
Several hundred people were evacuated with small ferries from the small seaside town of Nea Styra on the second largest Greek island Euboea.
Hundreds fled in panic from vacation quarters in the region around Nea Styra in the south of the island. The smoke was carried to the eastern suburbs of Athens.
Meanwhile, firemen were deployed in Athens to douse a fire in a park in Galatsi. Temperatures soared to 40 degrees in southern Greece, inching down into the 30s at night in Athens.
A number of villages were evacuated on the Peloponnese peninsula. A massive fire raged out of control near the southern Greek port of Kalamata, while other fires burned near Sparta, Corinth and Tripolis.
The Greek government Friday asked the European Union for support in fighting the wildfires. Extreme dry weather and strong winds fanned the fires, radio reports said.
The flames destroyed several houses in three communities on Taygetos mountain in the east of the city as it burned overnight on Thursday, the reports said.
Thick black smoke could be seen for kilometres spreading over the whole of the Gulf of Messina at the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula.
One fireman was slightly injured, and several villages had to be evacuated. Helicopters were deployed to drop water.
The situation was “very dangerous”, a spokesman for the civil defence told Greek television.