18 dead as Greece wildfires continue

ATHENS - Eighteen people were found dead on Tuesday in a forest in northern Greece where wildfires had been raging, the Fire Brigade said.

Their bodies were found near the city of Alexandroupolis. Local authorities said they believed the victims may be migrants who had entered the country illegally, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported.

The wildfires near Alexandroupolis were burning out of control for a fourth day, scorching forests and farmland and forcing the evacuation of over a dozen settlements.

On Monday night and early Tuesday, the city's general hospital was also evacuated as the building was enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke. Patients were transferred by ships to other hospitals, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

The Alexandroupolis wildfire is one of the most challenging for Greek firefighters. In the past 24 hours, they were battling 65 wildfires reported across the country.

Two major wildfires, which erupted on Tuesday in the northwestern Attica region near the Greek capital, also forced the evacuation of settlements and the closure of roads as a precautionary measure, as factories were engulfed in flames. Strong winds make efforts to contain the blazes more difficult.

Additional European Union (EU) aid is at the disposal of Greece as it battles the wildfires, European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari was quoted by AMNA as saying on Tuesday.

"We are sending seven firefighting aircrafts and one helicopter to Greece, mainly to the northwest of the country," Ujvari said, adding that over 100 firefighters and about 20 vehicles from Romania and the Czech Republic had already been deployed.