Two dead, hundreds evacuated from fires on island near Athens

Two people died and hundreds were evacuated Sunday as two fires broke out on the Greek island of Salamis near Athens, the fire department said.

A fire department spokesman told AFP that "two bodies were recovered" from the Peristeria beach area in the south of the island, as the service announced that hundreds of people had hurriedly been evacuated an hour earlier.

"There are hundreds of bathers and permanent residents, an evacuation order has been issued," the agency's deputy spokesman Yiannis Artopios told state TV ERT.

The civil protection ministry issued four evacuation orders in short succession as the fires broke out "almost simultaneously" in Peristeria and Selinia, two popular bathing areas in the island's south and east, Artopios said.

"It is a difficult fire... inside an inhabited area," he said.

Some roads remained open and police forces were on hand to guide them to safety, Artopios said.

Local officials were trying to keep the two fires from scaling a mountain and linking up, Salamina deputy mayor Thodoris Zannis told the station.

The fire service mobilised a large force of some 200 firefighters, nearly 50 engines, six aircraft and seven helicopters, rushing in reinforcements from the mainland, Artopios said.

Greece's coastguard said it had dispatched five patrol boats to the area and several other private vessels including ferries were being made available.

The fire department also had two vessels assisting, Artopios said.

After largely escaping the heatwave temperatures that blanketed much of Europe earlier this summer, Greece has been hit with several major wildfires since late July, fuelled by unusually strong winds.

Firefighters had largely contained a blaze on the Aegean island of Skyros earlier, an AFP reporter said.

Thirty-four fires have broken out over the past 24 hours around the country, according to the fire department.

Five firefighters have died so far, including a Danish pilot killed in a mid-air collision between two Bell helicopters while battling a blaze near Athens earlier this month.