At least 74 people have been killed in wildfires raging close to Athens since Monday, a Greek fire brigade official said on Tuesday. At least 187 people have been injured. The number of missing persons was still unclear.
Fire Service spokeswoman Stavroula Malliri said Tuesday afternoon that the death toll had increased from 50 to 74, adding that a further 164 adults and 23 children were still being treated in hospitals for injuries.
Two main fires broke out Monday, one to the west of Athens near the town of Kineta and one to the northeast near the port of Rafina. Both were fanned by gale-force winds Monday that hampered firefighting efforts and sent hundreds of people fleeing to beaches, from where they were evacuated on boats late at night.
It was the Rafina fire which appears to have been the deadliest by far.
The number outpaces the death toll of 2007, one of the worst on record, where about 70 individuals died from fires in the southern Peloponnese region.
