British tourists evacuated after forest fire
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Tuesday, 22, Aug 2006 07:41
Up to 1,000 Britons are thought to have been evacuated from a holiday resort in northern Greece as a forest fire sweeps through the nearby region.
The blaze is burning on several fronts on the Halkidiki peninsula, close to the resorts of Polychrono and Hanioti.
Tourists and local residents have been seeking refuge on beaches in the area after homes, hotels and campsites in the region were evacuated.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said a consular team was in close contact with the Greek local authorities and fire brigade.
A consular team is also being dispatched from the Greek capital, Athens, in order to offer further assistance to those holidaying in the area.
Meanwhile, UK tour operators are continuing to try and account for all their customers staying in the region.
A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook, which has 428 customers staying at one of the resorts affected by the fires, said: "We have had reports back that there are three hotels that we have passengers in that have now been evacuated.
"What our representatives are doing is just accounting for everyone and making sure that everyone is in the same area on the beach," she added.
First Choice, which has about 200 tourists staying in the resort of Hanioti, said that its workers had been touring the town advising customers to head for the safety of the beach.
"We believe the majority of people are now on the beach but all the tour operators are working together to make sure that people have been accounted for," a First Choice spokeswoman confirmed.
Greek fire chief Andreas Kois said that emergency services were finding it difficult to bring the fire under control.
"This is a very difficult fire because it's in an inhabited area. The winds are strong and conditions are bad," he said.
The fire comes amid a heat wave that is currently causing temperatures to rise across south-east Europe, where some areas have recorded temperatures of up to 42C (107F).