ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters scouring the area of a major wildfire in northeastern Greece burning out of control for a fourth day found the bodies of 18 people, authorities said Tuesday.
They were examining whether the group might have been migrants who entered the country through the nearby border.
In Greece, police activated the country’s Disaster Victim Identification Team to identify the 18 bodies, which were found Tuesday near a shack in the Avanta area, Ioannis Artopios, a spokesman for the fire department, said in a televised statement. Overnight, a massive wall of flames raced through forests toward Alexandroupolis, prompting authorities to evacuate another eight villages and the city’s hospital. Flames turned the sky over the city red as choking smoke and swirling flecks of ash filled the air.
New fires broke out in several parts of the country during the day Tuesday, including in woodland northwest of Athens and an industrial area on the western fringes of the Greek capital. “We are mobilizing actually almost one third of the aircraft we have in the rescEU fleet,” said EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari.
More than 12,000 people were evacuated during the past week. Authorities said Tuesday that 1,500 have been able to return to their homes. Authorities have described the fire as the worst in decades on the Atlantic archipelago.
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