Fires cause hours-long shutdown of major Greece- North Macedonian border crossing
The Peninsula
Skopje, Republic of NorthMacedonia: Wildfires on Wednesday forced a major border crossing between Greece and NorthMacedoniathat is popular with touris...
Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia: Wildfires on Wednesday forced a major border crossing between Greece and North Macedonia that is popular with tourists to be closed for several hours, officials said.
North Macedonia's interior ministry said that the crossing between the village of Bogorodica and Greece's Evzoni had been closed for safety.
The crossing is popular with tourists travelling to Greece by car -- with as many as 20,000 people passing through this section of the border per day during the summer high season, according to North Macedonia police figures.
"We appeal to citizens not to drive towards the border until an announcement that the fire is extinguished and traffic normalised," the ministry had said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.
The Greek fire department said 39 firefighters with 12 fire engines and one helicopter had been mobilised to battle the blaze.
