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Wildfire evacuation orders issued in Corfu

Evacuation orders have been issued in parts of Corfu amid wildfires as operators scramble to repatriate affected holidaymakers in Rhodes amid the Mediterranean heatwave.

Authorities on Corfu took action to get people out of multiple locations.

Greece’s Emergency Communications Service published evacuation orders for some areas of Corfu after reports of wildfires.

People in the areas of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies on the island were told to leave on Sunday evening.


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Boats in the area had been dispatched to evacuate residents by sea, a government official was reported by the BBC to have said.

Up to 60 people were reported to have been rescued from Nissaki beach in the northeast of the island involving six coast guard ships and nine private vessels.

Tui also advised that people set to stay at specific hotels in Corfu on July 24 and 25 not travel to the airport.

A Tui UK & Ireland spokesperson said: “We’ve been working with the local authorities in Corfu following the outbreak of a wildfire in the north east of the island last night resulting in guests being evacuated from a small number of hotels.

“As a precautionary measure we also stopped new arrivals into the affected hotels for Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th July.  

“The situation is now fully under control and guests are returning to their hotels to continue their holidays as planned.” 

 A British Airways spokesperson said: “We continue to carefully monitor the situation across Rhodes and Corfu, and are in touch with our British Airways Holidays customers in the affected areas to provide assistance.

“The safety of all our customers is our priority and we are giving them the option to change their return flight from either destination free of charge if they need to return earlier than planned. 

“Anyone due to travel out of the UK in the next week to these destinations can change their flight to a later date if they prefer.”

Emergency services have also been dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens and Aigio, southwest of Athens.    

Meanwhile, a five-strong Foreign Office rapid deployment team is in Rhodes, along with four Red Cross workers, to assist British nationals and support operators in bringing people home.

At least three hotels have been destroyed in the forest area of Kiotari on the east of Rhodes.

More than 250 firefighters backed by 18 aircraft were tackling the fires on Sunday.

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