Burnt cars abandoned on fringes of Athens after major wildfire sees thousands evacuated

Clean up operations were under way on Tuesday 13 August, after a major wildfire that burned into the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece, triggered evacuations and left at least one person dead.

With strong winds that had fanned the flames on Sunday and Monday dying down overnight, the fire department said the blaze no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters were concentrating their efforts on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of scattered, slow-burning areas.

Authorities were racing to extinguish as much of the blaze as possible ahead of Tuesday afternoon, when winds were predicted to pick up again.

June and July were the hottest months ever recorded in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter ever.