More than 2,000 holidaymakers returned home by plane on Monday, and more repatriation flights were expected on Tuesday. It comes as hundreds of tourists who had been forced to evacuate during holidays on Rhodes were expected to fly back to their home countries.Ībout 20,000 people had to leave homes and hotels in Rhodes over the weekend as the inferno, which began a week ago, spread and reached coastal resorts on the island’s south-east after charring swathes of land and damaging buildings. Tourists and residents have been told to avoid any actions in the open air that could cause a blaze, such as smoking, using power tools or cooking on open grills. In Crete, the country’s largest island, the new emergency warning means that, from Tuesday, officials will be on standby to respond to any fire incidents. A statement said weather conditions are being monitored and it is not yet running a full service.Ī wildfire also broke out in the popular Dubrovnik tourist region of Croatia overnight, with nearly 100 firefighters called to battle the blaze. Temperatures in Palermo rose to 47C (116C) on Monday – the highest since 1999, when they reached 44.8C.įirefighters deployed helicopters and a Canadair firefighting plane to dump water in parts of Sicily to bring the blazes under control.Īuthorities at Palermo airport confirmed that it had reopened on Tuesday morning. In Sicily, the authorities were forced to shut an airport in Palermo, the capital, on Monday after a wildfire broke out within its perimeter. The warning puts Crete in the highest risk category across Greece along with Rhodes, where firefighters have battled blazes for the past seven days following a near record-breaking heatwave across southern Europe. Greece’s Civil Protection issued an emergency “extreme fire risk” alert on the tourist island, which welcomed nearly five million visitors last year, many of them British holidaymakers. Crete has been placed on red alert as wildfires continue to sweep across the Greek islands and the airport in the Sicilian city of Palermo was forced to close for several hours by approaching flames.
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