Wildfires in Crete spark mass evacuations from hotels in holiday hotspot

More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from hotels and homes on the Greek island of Crete because of a rapidly sweeping wildfire. Some properties were damaged when strong winds drove the flames through hillside forests (Picture: EPA)

Authorities said evacuations were ordered at three sites outside the port of Ierapetra on the island’s south coast. The fire department said 230 firefighters backed up by 10 water-dropping aircraft were battling the flames, which have burned through forest and farmland in the Ierapetra area on the island’s southern coast (Picture: AP)

Two people were evacuated by boat overnight, while six private boats were on standby in case further evacuations by sea became necessary, the coast guard said. Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, said: ‘It’s a very difficult situation. The fire is very hard to contain. Right now, they cannot contain it’ (Picture: EPA)

He told the Associated Press that all the tourists who had to be relocated ‘are OK’ and being sheltered in an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other regions of the island. More are expected to have been evacuated overnight (Picture: Metro)

The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued localised mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try and save their property. The fires lit up the night sky, cresting ridgelines and edging toward residential areas (Picture: EPA)

Several residents were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries. The blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky, illuminated by the headlights of emergency vehicles and water trucks that lined the coastal road near the resorts of Ferma and Achlia on the southeast of Crete (Picture: REUTERS)

Members of specialized units – often only working with hand tools – were creating hillside fire breaks to try and slow the advance of the blaze. In a separate incident, a 67-year-old British man died on a cruise ship in the Greek island of Corfu (Picture: Kostas Metaksakis/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Port Authority said in a statement: ‘In the morning hours today, the Corfu Port Authority was informed of the death of a 67-year-old foreign passenger (British citizen) on a cruise ship (C/Z) flying the Maltese flag in the port of Corfu. ‘The body was transferred to the Corfu General Hospital for an autopsy. A preliminary investigation is being conducted by the Corfu Central Port Authority’ (Picture: EPA)

Crete is one of Greece’s most popular tourist destinations. The risk of wildfires remained very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the Fire Service (Picture: REUTERS)