Wildfire in southern Greece leaves two people dead following record-hot summer

Two people died overnight in a large wildfire burning through forestland near a seaside resort in southern Greece, authorities said.

The fire service said about 350 firefighters, assisted by eight water-dropping aircraft, managed to bring the blaze near Xylokastro in the Peloponnese region largely under control early on Monday

Half a dozen villages were ordered evacuated overnight as a precaution after the blaze broke out on Sunday. The flames were fanned on by very strong winds blowing through forests left tinder-dry by a warm spring and hot summer.

Authorities said the two dead were believed to be local residents declared missing late on Sunday. Nobody else was believed to be missing.

There were no immediate reports of burned homes in the affected area, some 150 kilometres southwest of Athens.

Greece, like other southern European countries, is plagued by destructive wildfires every summer. Over the past few months, authorities have had to cope with more than 4,500 wildfires.

Hospitals and residential suburbs had to be evacuated northeast of Athens in August as a blaze tore through dry pine forests.

The country has been hit by repeated heatwaves, with June and July being the hottest months ever recorded in Greece.

It comes after a record-long 16-day heatwave fuelled the EU’s largest ever wildfire in summer 2023, which killed at least 28 people.

Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at around twice the global average, according to the UN's World Meteorological Organization and the European Union's climate agency, Copernicus.

This has been felt most keenly over central and southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean - with Greece especially hard hit.

Its mosaic of islands makes it especially