The forest fires in Greece have now also reached the suburbs in the north of the capital Athens.
The fire brigade is constantly fighting the flames.
Athens - The south of Europe is currently struggling with extreme weather *.
A historic heat wave * has been raging in Greece for around a week.
Temperatures beyond 40 degrees are the order of the day.
Due to the heat and drought, forest fires have already broken out in several parts of the country.
Now the fire brigade is also fighting the flames outside the gates of the capital Athens.
Forest fires in Greece: fire reaches suburbs of Athens - several villages evacuated
"It's a nightmare fire on the outskirts of the city," said the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis * after visiting the affected regions.
It is the top priority to save human lives.
On Wednesday morning (August 4th), the firefighters continued to fight the major fire in the northern suburbs of Athens.
The flames have already reached the first suburbs such as Varympompi and Acharnes.
The plumes of smoke were visible throughout the capital of Greece *.
"We hope to be able to bring the fire under control today before the winds start again," said a fire department officer on Greek state television on Wednesday morning.
As early as the first light of day, helicopters and airplanes were used to contain the flames.
The winds slacked off for the time being.
No information is currently available on possible victims.
Several villages were evacuated on Tuesday (August 3).
Forest fires off Athens: smoke drifts over the Greek capital - "Stay at home"
"Stay at home.
All windows must be closed ”, is the call of the civil defense for the inhabitants of Athens.
Due to the heavy smoke and the calm, visibility in the Greek capital was limited to a few hundred meters in the morning.
Ashes fell on houses.
In addition, an acrid smell reportedly bothered people.
The Greek health authority reported a pollution of up to 465 micrograms of fine dust per cubic meter for the city center of Athens.
For comparison: the EU-wide limit value is a daily average of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
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The forest fires in Greece have reached the first suburbs in northern Athens.
© Lydia Veropoulou / IMAGO
Forest fires off Athens: a quick end to the heat wave is not in sight
An end to the extreme heat * is not in sight until the weekend at the earliest, as the weather office announced. Extreme temperatures of around 43 to 44 degrees are expected again in Athens on Wednesday. The historic heat wave is not only raging in the capital, but across the country. Large fires have also broken out on the Peloponnese peninsula and the holiday islands of Rhodes and Kos, as well as on the island of Evia. On Tuesday evening, the civil defense announced that the fire brigade was fighting against 40 major fires across the country. Hundreds of houses were burned or damaged according to an initial estimate.
The situation is currently similar in neighboring Turkey.
The fire brigade is also fighting countless forest fires there.
The south-west Turkish provinces of Antalya and Mugla are particularly hard hit.
The flames cost their lives a German-Turkish couple *.
In Italy, violent forest fires were recently raging in the south of the country, on the large islands of Sicily and Sardinia, as well as partly on the Adriatic coast *.
The situation there recently improved, as the fire brigade announced.
(ph / dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Lydia Veropoulou via www.imago-images.de