Tour operators flew more than 2,000 holidaymakers home on Monday as wildfires raged on the island of Rhodes in what the Greek government said was the largest evacuation ever undertaken in the country, SİA reports citing Reuters.
More repatriation flights were due on Monday and Tuesday as the fires remained out of control and the Civil Protection authority warned the threat of further fires was high in almost every part of Greece, gripped by a heatwave.
Fires burning since Wednesday on Rhodes forced 19,000 people to leave homes and hotels over the weekend as an inferno reached coastal resorts on the island's southeast. A wildfire also led to evacuations on the island of Corfu.
Rhodes and Corfu are among Greece's top destinations for tourists mainly from Britain and Germany.
"For the next few weeks we must be on constant alert. We are at war, we will rebuild what we lost, we will compensate those who were hurt," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament.
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