Latest news with #GreekAuthorities
The Independent
7 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Greece forest fire fanned by gusty winds and stubborn heatwave
Greek authorities ordered the evacuation of several villages near Corinth after a major forest fire erupted on Tuesday amidst soaring summer temperatures. Over 180 firefighters, supported by 15 aircraft and 12 helicopters, are battling the fast-moving blaze in a pine forest west of Athens, fanned by gusty winds and a heatwave around 40C. Emergency alerts were sent to residents in affected communities, including Agia Kyriaki, Etos Steko, and Imeros Pefkos, asking them to evacuate their homes. Separately, a firefighting helicopter crashed into the sea near Athens while responding to another wildfire; all three crew members were rescued with non-life-threatening injuries. Greece is prone to wildfires during summer due to hot, dry weather and strong winds, with officials warning that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of such events.
The Independent
7 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Evacuations in Greece after major forest fire breaks out
Greek authorities ordered the evacuation of several villages after a major forest fire broke out near the city of Corinth on Tuesday amid soaring summer temperatures. More than 180 firefighters, supported by a fleet of 15 aircraft and 12 helicopters, were battling the fast-moving blaze in a pine forest in mountainous terrain west of Athens, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths as fire crews worked through the night, fanned by gusty winds and a stubborn heatwave that has pushed temperatures to around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) across much of Greece. Emergency alerts were sent to residents in affected villages, asking them to leave their homes as flames approached. Agia Kyriaki, Etos Steko, and Imeros Pefkos among the communities evacuated. Earlier on Tuesday, a firefighting helicopter crashed into the sea while responding to a separate wildfire near Athens. The three crew members were rescued and transferred to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to authorities. Greece is prone to wildfires during the summer, when hot, dry weather, strong winds, and a changing climate regularly combine to create high fire risks. The fire department has responded to dozens of wildfires already this season, with officials repeatedly warning that extreme weather and longer droughts are fueling the frequency and intensity of such events. In recent years, deadly blazes have devastated parts of the country. In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned while trying to swim away. On the island of Crete and other areas, thousands of residents and tourists were evacuated from fires earlier this month. Additional communities on the island, including beachfront villages, were also evacuated as the fire advanced, while health officials placed local hospitals on high alert due to smoke inhalation cases among elderly residents.
Daily Mail
21-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Deadly storms hit France, wildfires break out in Italy and Spain and 43C blowtorch heatwave hits Greece - as Brits prepare for the big summer getaway
Europe is in the grip of an unforgiving bout of extreme weather that is battering popular holiday destinations just as British tourists prepare to head abroad for the summer. Searing heatwaves, devastating wildfires and violent storms are sweeping the continent, threatening lives, scorching landscapes and putting emergency services under immense pressure. Tourist hotspots in Italy and Spain are contending with several punishing blazes, with hundreds of firefighters and water-carrying aircraft dispatched to quell the flames. Greek authorities meanwhile are warning residents and holidaymakers to expect a week of hellish warmth, with the mercury expected to peak at 43 degrees Celsius in parts of the country. The Hellenic Meteorological Service issued public health warnings this morning, declaring temperatures would linger between 38 and 40 degrees C today and increase well beyond that throughout the week. Similar temperatures are present throughout Turkey and southern Italy. Elsewhere, France and Germany are facing a contrasting crisis as punishing storms and torrential downpours tear across towns and cities, felling trees, ripping off rooftops and flooding roads. FRANCE: A lighting bolt lights up the sky as people prepare to leave the beach during a thunder storm over the city of La Baule Spain is struggling to quell a series of wildfires that have already burned through 70,000 hectares of land in recent weeks. On Friday, the skies above Madrid turned an ominous shade of orange as the Spanish sunshine illuminated a blanket of smoke drifting across the capital from nearby forest fires. Authorities say more than a dozen localised fires are currently raging, with high temperatures, intense winds and persistent drought having turned the country into a 'powder keg'. Several regions were placed under a very high or high warning level by the Forest Fire Potential Spread Index (FPI) published this morning, with Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Toledo and Castilla-La Mancha thought to be under threat. It comes as a fire in Toledo was extinguished overnight. The Italian island of Sicily is also battling six separate wildfires, with soaring temperatures leading authorities to issue red alert warnings for four provinces this week. Sicily's Forestry Corps and Civil Protection workers were engaged all weekend as they worked to extinguish the fires, with six water-dropping aircraft drafted into control the flames. Three of the blazes are located in the northwest in the countryside between the cities of Palermo and Trapani, with two more reported along the south coast and another in the suburbs of the eastern city of Catania. Horrifying images snapped overnight by residents in Trapani showed thick orange flames scything through bone-dry hills on the outskirts of the city. This morning, meteorologists placed the eastern provinces of Catania, Caltanissetta, Enna and Messina under red alert warnings, with emergency services preparing for the prospect of yet more infernos. These warnings come amid an intense heatwave engulfing southern Europe as winds bring subtropical air from northern Africa to southern Italy and Greece, according to meteorologist Giulio Betti. As Spanish and Italian emergency services battle the wildfires, Greek meteorologist Clearchos Marousakis said parts of his nation will experience 43 degrees Celsius heat, and said the mercury could go even higher. Marousakis said the 'ceiling' of this week's heatwave 'is estimated at 41 to 43 degrees Celsius inland'. He added that the heat wave 'will be intense and long-lasting' and will be accompanied by high winds along the coast. Greek emergency services will therefore be on high alert for more wildfires, weeks after Crete and several other parts of the country were overwhelmed by infernos that triggered evacuations of some 5,000 people. Those punishing blazes sparked in the mountains between the villages of Ferma, Achila and Agia Fota on July 1 and were whipped up by powerful gusts. Evacuations were ordered at three sites outside the port of Ierapetra on the island's south coast as the inferno raged out of control overnightand by Wednesday afternoon was threatening to engulf residences and tourist resorts. Around 230 firefighters were dispatched to contain the fires along with 10 water-dropping aircraft to fly regular sorties over Crete, with reinforcements sent from Athens. The president of a hotelier's association told Protothema that 5,000 people - mostly foreign tourists - were moved out of homes and hotels, while dozens were taken to hospital with respiratory issues triggered by thick clouds of smoke and ash. Wildfires have burned more than 227,000 hectares of land in Europe since the beginning of the year, according to the EU's European Forest Fire Information System - far above the average figure for the first six months of the year. It's not yet clear if 2025 will be a record year, as that will depend on how the fire season evolves in the coming months, but the number of fires in Europe has also surged this year so far, with 1,118 blazes detected as of July 8, versus 716 in the same period last year, EFFIS said. Countries are preparing for worse blazes. Warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast across Europe in August, EFFIS said, meaning fire danger will remain high across much of southern and eastern Europe. While Southern Europe is expected to see normal rainfall patterns, the rest of the continent is expected to be drier than normal in August, EFFIS said - potentially exacerbating fire risk in other regions. Firefighting efforts continue from the air for the forest fire which broke out at Mediterranean scrubs between Partinico and Alcamo, western of Sicily, Italy on July 20, 2025 While Italy, Spain and Greece battle wildfires and scorching heat, residents in France and Germany are facing a very different problem. Brutal storms engulfed much of eastern France over the weekend with one person killed and six more injured amid the violent weather events. The roofs of several houses were torn off in the department of Saone-et-Loire, north of Lyon, such was the intensity of the winds and the lightning storms. One person attempting to make repairs to his roof was killed when he was blown off a ladder, while in nearby Jura, almost 5,000 people were left without power. Another person was seriously injured in Devrouze when he too was blown off a roof, and five more people were hurt in the Alpine department of Savoie when a tree was felled and landed on a car. Meanwhile, the German Weather Service (DWD) this morning issued a string of weather alerts for much of the north and southeast of the country, warning of heavy rainfall and the prospect of flash floods. DWD meteorologists warned residents could expect to see up to 100 litres of rainfall per square metre over a 12-hour period later today, with winds reaching 80 kilometres per hour. Videos and images shared to social media late yesterday also showed huge hailstones that were raining down across parts of the country. Southern Germany experienced golf ball-sized hail, with chunks of ice up to 5cm in size raining down through thick fog. A mixture of level two warnings for 'significant weather' and level three warnings for 'severe weather' have been issued for Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony. A level three warning has also been issued for Berlin.
Arab News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Over 7,000 migrants detained in Greece as Crete struggles with Libya arrivals
LAVRIO: More than 500 migrants arrived at the port of Lavrio near Athens on Thursday after being intercepted south of the island of Crete, as Greece implements emergency measures to address a surge in Mediterranean crossings from Libya. The migrants, consisting mostly of young men, were transferred overnight aboard a bulk carrier after their fishing trawler was intercepted by Greek authorities. Service vessels helped bring them ashore at the mainland port. They will be sent to detention facilities near the capital. More than 200 migrants were brought to the port of Piraeus, also near Athens, in separate transfers from Crete. The transfers to the mainland were ordered because makeshift reception centers on Crete have reached capacity, with around 500 new arrivals per day on the Mediterranean island since the weekend. We can no longer accept migration flows from North Africa. People there need to think twice before deciding to pay a large sum of money to come to our country Manos Logothetis, ministry of migration Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced Wednesday that Greece would suspend asylum processing for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa for three months. The new measures are due to be voted on in parliament on Thursday as an emergency amendment. 'This is an extreme and urgent situation, and we are taking extraordinary steps, ones that are difficult, tough, and strict. But they send a clear message,' Manos Logothetis, secretary-general at the ministry of migration, told state-run television. 'These measures are a clear statement from the Greek government — and by extension, from Europe — that we can no longer accept migration flows from North Africa,' he said. 'People there need to think twice before deciding to pay a large sum of money to come to our country.' Logothetis said that Greece backed EU initiatives linking financial aid to African countries to their willingness to receive their citizens deported or agreeing to voluntary repatriation from Europe. Greece says more than 7,000 migrants have been detained over the past 10 days after traveling from Libya to Crete — a surge that occurred despite an overall drop in illegal migration to Europe. The European Union's border protection agency, Frontex, on Thursday reported that irregular crossings into the EU dropped by 20 percent in first half of 2025 on an annual basis though increases were recorded in parts of the Mediterranean. The crisis on Crete coincided with a diplomatic spat between the European Union and Libya over migration cooperation. EU officials earlier this week were turned away from eastern Libya following an apparent disagreement on the format of talks planned on curbing crossings. Authorities on Crete are struggling to provide basic services, using temporary facilities to house migrants, primarily from Somalia, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco, according to island officials. The New York-based aid organization International Rescue Committee criticized asylum pause in Greece. 'Seeking refuge is a human right; preventing people from doing so is both illegal and inhumane,' the group's Martha Roussou said. 'People fleeing conflict and disaster must be treated with dignity and provided fair and lawful access to asylum procedures — not detained or turned away.'
Washington Post
10-07-2025
- Washington Post
Hundreds of migrants moved from Crete to Greek mainland as island struggles with Libya arrivals
LAVRIO, Greece — More than 500 migrants arrived at the port of Lavrio near Athens Thursday after being intercepted south of the island of Crete, as Greece implements emergency measures to address a surge in Mediterranean crossings from Libya . The migrants, consisting mostly of young men, were transferred overnight aboard a bulk carrier after their fishing trawler was intercepted by Greek authorities. Service vessels helped bring them ashore at the mainland port. They will be sent to detention facilities near the capital.
