The wildfires have left 20 people dead over the last week.
Eighteen of those, including two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants who crossed the nearby border with Turkey.
Greece’s climate crisis and civil protection minister Vassilis Kikilias said arson was to blame for some of the blazes near Athens. Elsewhere in Europe, fires on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, north-western Turkey near the border with Greece, Portugal and Italy were being brought under control, officials said.
On the outskirts of Athens, a major fire that destroyed homes in the foothills of Mount Parnitha on Wednesday was racing across the mountain’s forested slopes and threatened the heart of a national park that is one of the last wooded areas near the Greek capital.Evacuation orders were issued for several outlying suburbs overnight into Thursday, while other neighbourhoods were put on standby for possible evacuation.
Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian and Czech firefighters with vehicles were helping in the Alexandroupolis fire.European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.
Extensive parts of the country have been placed at Level 5 – the highest for fire risk – seven times this year.
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