Greece fires: Shock aerial footage reveals extent of devastation as death toll rises
WILDFIRES sweeping through a Greek resort town have killed at least 74 people including families with children found clasped in an embrace as they tried to flee the flames.
By THOMAS HUNT
Express.co.uk
Tue, Jul 24, 2018
Shocking aerial footage has been released showing the devastation caused by the wildfire as the death toll rises.
The inferno was by far Greece’s worst since fires devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens.
Officials said it broke out in Mati, east of Athens, and despite being contained holds the risk of reigniting in scrubland parched by Greece’s searing summer heat.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said: “Greece is going through an unspeakable tragedy.”
Emergency crews found the bodies of 26 victims, some of them youngsters, lying close together near the top of a cliff overlooking a beach. They had ended up there after apparently searching for an escape route.
Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, said: “Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced.”
Many hours after the blaze broke out, the strong smell of charred buildings and trees lingered in the air in parts of Mati on Tuesday. White smoke rose from smouldering fires.
Residents, their faces blackened by smoke, wandered the streets, some searching for their burned-out cars, others for their pets. The eerie silence was punctured by fire-fighting helicopters and the chatter of rescue crews.
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