Helicopter rescue for trapped Greek villagers

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.

The Super Puma chopper headed to the village of Frixa in the western Peloponnese, which has been devastated by four days of raging fires sweeping across the country.

“We have a problem. We have people trapped,” said a fire department spokeswoman.

She said there were also reports of 11 people trapped in woodland in Aigialia, in the northern Peloponnese.

Fuelled by strong, hot winds and parched grass and trees, the fires have engulfed villages, forests and farmland, leaving in their wake a blackened landscape dotted with the carcasses of animals.

New blazes broke out faster than others could be brought under control.

One fire raged out of control in Nafpaktos in the south, while another wall of flames crossed over Greece’s northern border from Albania, the fire department said.

Weekend wildfires killed two people in southern Bulgaria, which borders Greece to the north.

An earlier fire that had broken out on Mount Ymittos on the fringes of Athens was quickly brought under control, the fire department said.

Authorities have suggested arson caused many of the blazes, and several people have been arrested.

A prosecutor today ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks could come under Greece’s anti-terrorism and organised crime laws, Public Order Ministry said in a statement.