Greece wildfires: Rhodes tourists sleep on airport floor awaiting evacuation
Around 2,500 people have been evacuated from Corfu, the Greek fire service said, as dozens of wildfires erupted on the island after a blaze in Rhodes prompted “the biggest evacuation in Greek history”.
Videos on social media show flames engulfing Corfu as smoke and orange haze covered the night skies. The fire broke out on the northern part of the island which is popular with British tourists.
Those in Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia Perithia and Sinies were told to evacuate to Kasiopi due to fires in Corfu.
Yannis Artopios, a spokesperson for the fire department, said some 2,466 people have been evacuated overnight, according to AFP news agency.
The order came after Jet2 and Tui cancelled all flights to Rhodes. The Jet2 planes were scheduled to depart full of tourists bound for the Greek island. But the planes left empty and will instead be used to evacuate holidaymakers fleeing the blaze.
Thousands of tourists were forced to flee their hotels and images captured their dramatic evacuation off of beaches by a fleet of private boats while the fires raged in the background.
