(Athens) Greek civil protection called on Tuesday for the evacuation of six villages and suburbs at the foot of Mount Penteli, north of Athens, threatened by a major fire.
Posted at 1:05 p.m.
78 firefighters, 22 vehicles, 11 planes and 5 helicopters were mobilized to try to extinguish the fire which threatens the municipalities of Penteli, Nea Penteli, Daou, Dioni and Kallitechnoupoli, said the Greek firefighters.
The fire, fanned by high winds of up to 7 on the Beaufort scale (which includes 13 degrees), has also led to some road closures.
In the past 24 hours, Greek firefighters have dealt with 39 fire outbreaks in the country.
Last summer, Greece and especially the island of Euboea, near Athens, was hit by scorching temperatures and violent forest fires, which had ravaged 103,000 hectares and killed three people.
In view of the summer season, the Greek government had asked its European partners, within the framework of the European Civil Protection Mechanism (MEPC), to dispatch firefighters from several Member States as a preventive measure.
Since 1er July, 250 Romanian, French, German, Bulgarian, Finnish and Norwegian firefighters successively began to be deployed on Greek territory.