People evacuated take shelter at a sports hall in Venetokleio due to wildfires on Rhodes island, Greece on July 23, 2023.
Tour operators began flying home holidaymakers as wildfires raged on the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday and officials said the threat of further fires was high in almost every region of the country.
Fires burning since Wednesday on Rhodes forced the evacuation of 19,000 people over the weekend as an inferno reached coastal resorts on the island's southeast.
Rhodes and Corfu are among Greece's top destinations for tourists mainly from Britain and Germany.
Tourists spent the night on the airport floor, waiting for repatriation flights, the first of which came overnight.
Persons:
Rhodes, Konstantinos Taraslias, John Hope, Mario Wiese
Organizations:
ERT, Tourists
Locations:
Venetokleio, Rhodes, Greece, Corfu, Britain, Germany, Ireland, Manchester, England, Austrian