Greek firefighters were battling more wildfires with water bombing planes and helicopters on Corfu, an island popular with tourists
State broadcaster ERT showed footage of the plane dropping water over a fire and then crashing into a hillside and bursting into flames.
Hundreds of firefighters, helped by forces from Turkey and Slovakia, were battling blazes that have raged on the island of Rhodes since Wednesday and resurged in hot, windy conditions. More emergency flights were due to take home holidaymakers. In Greece, a prosecutor on Rhodes launched an investigation into the causes of the fires and the preparedness and response of authorities, state broadcaster ERT said. It said about 10% of the island's land area had burned.Lefteris Laoudikos, whose family owns a small hotel in the seaside resort town of Kiotari, one of the epicentres of the fire over the weekend, said its 200 guests - mainly from Germany, Britain and Poland - evacuated in rental cars.
"After the superhuman efforts to contain the fire we need superhuman efforts to restart tourism now," he said. After a blaze in the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, in 2018 killed 104 people, Greece has taken a more proactive approach towards evacuations. But critics say it has not improved its ability to put out fires that are common in summer, though more intense in this year's heatwave.There were also fires on the island of Corfu.
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