- Massive wildfires engulfed many towns in the surrounding region outside Athens.
- Twenty-six bodies were found huddled together in the yard of a villa in Mati.
- At least 88 people have died.
- The youngest victim was believed to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation.
- It is Greece's worst wildfire in more than 10 years.
- The prime minister has assumed political responsibility for the disaster.
At least 88 people died in massive wildfires around Athens, Greece, with dozens of people engulfed in flames and smoke as they tried to escape.
The fire hit Mati, a seaside resort village located 18 miles east of the capital, on late Monday afternoon, and has reduced much of the city to ash. The neighboring port town of Rafina was also affected. A separate blaze also hit Kineta, a small resort town 35 miles of Athens around the same time.
The death toll rose dramatically on Tuesday morning after 26 bodies were found huddled together in the yard of a villa in Mati.
"They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didn't make it in time," Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, told Greece's Skai TV, Reuters noted.
Nikos Toskas, deputy minister for citizen protection, told reporters earlier this week the fires might have been caused by arson, citing "lots of fires appeared in a very short period of time."
Greek authorities revised the death toll to 88 on Saturday.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras assumed political responsibility for the disaster on Friday, saying he had felt "anguish as to whether we acted as we should have done, if we responded correctly in these critical hours, and if we could have done anything more to save even one more of the souls who died unjustly," according to The Guardian.
Earlier in the week he also declared three days of national mourning for the disaster's victims.
It is the country's worst wildfire since August 2007, when fires in the southern Peloponnese peninsula led to 64 deaths.
The map below shows the towns that affected by the wildfires.
Many people tried to make their way to the sea as flames continued to engulf the land. Some 700 were saved by passing boats and coast guard vessels, but some others didn't make it, Reuters reported.
Reuters also said one of its photographers in Mati saw at least four bodies on a narrow road clogged with cars that were heading to the beach.
Photos posted on social media showed dozens of people stranded on beaches. Many are standing in the water.
At least 187 other people are injured, 23 of whom are children, Greece's Kathimerini newspaper reported.
One of the youngest victims of the disaster was a six-month-old baby, who is believed to have died of smoke inhalation as he and his mother tried to escape toward the water.
An unnamed woman told Skai TV, as cited by the BBC: "Mati doesn't even exist as a settlement anymore. I saw corpses, burned-out cars. I feel lucky to be alive."
As of Tuesday morning, some parts of Mati were still on fire, with cars being reduced to chars, and tires appearing to have melted into the ground.
Wildfires are not uncommon in Greece, and a dry winter and hot summer around Athens made conditions even more prone to flames, The Guardian said. High winds also made the flames spread more quickly, the BBC said.
"Climate conditions" in badly-scorched areas were "extreme due to climate change," authorities said.
Illegal buildings constructued by residents between wooded areas also blocked escape routes and worsened the disaster, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said on Thursday.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the region, and Tsipras cut short a trip to Bosnia to return to Greece. "All emergency forces" have been deployed to fight the flames, Tsipras said.
Photos from Monday showed fire trucks racing to the scenes amid an orange sky engulfed by flames.
Italy, Germany, Poland, and France have sent planes, vehicles, and firefighters to Greece to help, but are in a race against time to get fires under control as temperatures continue to soar, the BBC reported.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president, tweeted on Tuesday: "Europe will stand by our Greek friends in these difficult times."
"We are dealing with something completely asymmetric," Tsipras said, as cited by Reuters.
Officials have urged residents to leave their homes.
Intense wilfires on the national road Athens - Patras, Greece today, July 23! Near Athens. Video: Giannis Labropoulos / @Cyclone_Rhodes pic.twitter.com/C4fNzGK9r8
— severe-weather.EU (@severeweatherEU) July 23, 2018
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