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A fire-fighting plane drops water over a fire near the beach resort of Vatera on Lesvos
Photo: MANOLIS LAGOUTARIS / AFP
A popular bathing resort on the Greek Mediterranean island of Lesbos has been evacuated due to a forest fire.
Two hotels and more than 90 houses were evacuated in the coastal town of Vatera, police said.
A total of 450 people were brought to safety.
Because of the heavy smoke, residents of Vatera sought refuge on the beaches and were picked up by the Coast Guard in boats.
At least ten houses in the village were damaged, local media reported.
Firefighters used nine planes and one helicopter to fight the blaze.
One of the largest forest areas in Europe is on fire
Flames are raging in several places in Greece.
A large fire destroyed the forest of the Dadia National Park in the north-east of the country, one of the largest forest areas in south-eastern Europe.
The flames destroyed a biotope in which numerous birds of prey and wild animals live.
The area is densely forested and there are hardly any roads.
For this reason, the fire brigade is trying to contain the flames from the air with firefighting aircraft and helicopters, said a spokesman for the fire brigade.
Most of Greece's 86 fire-fighting planes and helicopters are fighting the flames, according to civil defense.
Smaller fires also raged on the Peloponnese peninsula, the Greek state radio reported.
Drought and high temperatures would hit almost all parts of Greece in the coming days and create "the perfect backdrop" for further fires, meteorologists warned on the radio.
Temperatures in central Greece were already around 38 degrees early on Saturday morning.
It should be more than 40 degrees early next week.
The heat will last until early August, it said.
ktz/dpa/afp
