Firefighters battled the country’s last major blaze in southern Greece today, after managing to bring under control hundreds of others that for one week ravaged large parts of the country and killed at least 64 people.

Greece’s fire department said all major blazes were “generally receding,” but authorities remained on high alert for possible rekindling of the massive fires that have killed at least 64 people before a new heat wave forecast for the weekend.

Greece’s president today described the fires ravaging his country’s forests as a national catastrophe, as thousands of firefighters – hundreds of them brought in from other countries – fought to control blazes that have burned nearly 500,000 acres.

Foreign firefighters and aircraft joined the battle today against blazes in southern Greece that have killed 64 people.

Firefighters scrambled a helicopter to rescue people trapped by flames in a southern Greek village today, while dozens of fires burned out of control after killing 63 people.

A fire broke out on the fringes of Athens today, burning down a slope of Mount Ymittos and bearing down on a suburb of the Greek capital as wildfires which have killed at least 61 people ravaged vast areas of the country.

Firefighters backed by aircraft prevented the birthplace of the ancient Olympics from being consumed by flames as Greece’s worst wildfires in memory blazed across the country and the death toll climbed to 60.

Fires tore through parched forests and swallowed villages across Greece, bearing down on communities near Ancient Olympia in the south today. At least 49 people were dead.

A flash flood swept away a group of hikers alongside a river in southern Greece, killing at least five people, police said today. Three others were missing.