Thousands flee Greece blazes as wildfires sweep through Mediterranean

ATHENS - Thousands of people fled their homes on the outskirts of Athens on Friday and hundreds were evacuated by boat from the nearby island of Evia as Greece faced a fourth day of wildfires fuelled by strong winds and searing temperatures.

Like elsewhere in Europe, Greece has been grappling with extreme weather this summer and a protracted heatwave - its worst in 30 years - has sparked simultaneous wildfires in several parts of the country. In neighbouring Turkey, authorities are battling the country's worst ever wildfires, which forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people including tourists and briefly threatened to engulf a power station. In Italy, hot winds fanned flames on the island of Sicily this week.