Greece wildfires - latest: Athens seaside town evacuated as strong winds spread deadly fire

• Greece’s worst wildfire of the year has left one woman dead after erupting in Lake Marathon on Sunday.

• International aid from France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Serbia and Romania arrived to the ground to assist firefighting teams.

• Hundreds of residents have been evacuated from suburbs of Athens with dozens of homes and businesses burned.

• Officials have issued an evacuation alert for a touristic hotspot in the seaside town of Nea Makri.

• More than a dozen people have been treated by paramedics, mostly for smoke inhalation, while five firefighters suffered light burns and breathing problems, the fire department said.

• Greek minister Vassilis Kikilias declared that “forty hours after the extremely dangerous wildfire broke out in Varnava” but “we now say that there is no active front, only scattered hotspots.”

• The country remains on high fire alert after meteorologists fear strong winds reaching up to 60-70 kilometers (37-43 miles) could pick up again.

Firefighters continue to battle against the wildfire in a town near the Greek capital after a fierce fire broke out on Sunday.

A 60-year-old woman was found dead inside a factory in Patima Halandriou.

The harrowing scenes never seen before in Athens have forced thousands to flee the capital’s suburbs.

Greece called the EU for assistance to assist hard-pressed firefighters. EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari said: “The EU civil protection mechanism was activated upon request of the Greek authorities.”

Countries including Italy, France, the Czech Republic and Romania have confirmed they are sending units to help.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Paris is deploying 180 firefighters, 55 trucks and a helicopter to assist.

The Greek civil protection ministry also confirmed aid from Spain is also being “finalised” and Turkey announced it was sending two planes and a helicopter to help battle the fire.

At Nea Makri. Small fires have reignited on the mountains that overlook the seaside town, Rich Booth reports from Greece.

Helicopters are filing up water from the sea to battle the raging fire endangering the tourist hotspot.

Hotels are just metres away from where for fighters have been evacuated as they try to contain them to one side of a mountain road. 

The town is popular among Greek tourists who want to stay near the beach. Hotel balconies are overlooking where flames are starting on the already charred ground.

Pine cones and fallen branches are littering the road nearby with last nights fire taking down pylons.

Sakis Morris has described the desperate moment he watched the flames burned out of control destroying everything he owned.

Mr Morris, who lives in the Athens suburb of Vrilissia, said the fire left his home in ashes.

He told Sky News: “A huge flame appeared from behind and everything melted in a minute,” he says, looking at the charred remains of his porch.

“A big flame appeared suddenly and we had to leave. The speed of the wind was very high, you couldn’t do anything.”

Residents who witnessed the deadly Greek wildfire raging towards their homes have said they felt like they were witnessing the “end of the world just beyond our doorstep”.

Roberta Kapsalis, who lives in the seaside town of Schinias in Marathon, revealed the harrowing moment the flames approached her area.

She told Metro: “The fire has been nothing short of a nightmare, a real-life ‘Apocalypse Now’. Watching this massive blaze approach has been surreal, like something out of a dark fantasy.

“The sight of the flames consuming everything in their path, inching closer and closer, has felt like a slow-motion horror movie.

“It reminded me vividly of the scenes from The Lord of the Rings when Sauron’s ominous presence looms over Middle-Earth, with his fiery eye burning in the sky.”

Serious forest fire is raging out of control on the outskirts of the Greek capital and tourists are being evacuated in the suburbs of Athens.

Traveling to Greece has not been officially advised against but holidaymakers who have booked a trip to the capital should contact their travel provider for guidance.

Flights are continuing normally for now at Athens airport: smoke can be seen from planes taking off, our travel correspondent Simon Calder writes.

The standard approach for arriving aircraft has been to loop around to the south of Athens, over the Saronic Gulf, and land from southwest to northeast.

Departing aircraft are taking off normally over the Petalioi Gulf. There is no immediate threat to the airport as the area surrounding it is partly built up, and the open land has very little vegetation.

Three flights from London Heathrow landed at Eleftherios Venizelos in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and several more are under way: easyJet from London Gatwick, Ryanair from Luton and Jet2 from Manchester.

Jet2 is telling passengers: “We are aware of the wildfires affecting an area of Athens and are monitoring the situation closely.

“As it currently stands, Athens airport is still open and we are planning to operate our flights as planned. Please allow extra time for your journey to the airport, as there may be road closures in place.”

The worst wildfires of the year in Greece are expanding rapidly as satellite images reveal vast areas covered under a thick shroud of smoke.

The fires, which erupted on Sunday near Lake Marathon, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Athens.

The blaze raced across Mount Penteli and descended into the northern suburbs of Athens, triggering widespread evacuations and claiming at least one life.

Firefighters found the burned body of a woman in an industrial building in the suburb of Vrilissia just after midnight.

The woman, an employee of the business, was believed to have become trapped inside the building in an area that had been under evacuation orders.