Police officers help firefighters extinguish a fire in Thrakomakedones, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens. Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP
Police officers help firefighters extinguish a fire in Thrakomakedones, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens. Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP
Police officers help firefighters extinguish a fire in Thrakomakedones, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens. Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP
Police officers help firefighters extinguish a fire in Thrakomakedones, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens. Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP

Hundreds moved as bushfires rage across Greece for fifth day


Nicky Harley
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Hundreds of people have been moved from Greece after fires raged for a fifth day in a row.

Ferries took people from the island of Evia, east of Athens, on Saturday.

The fire on Mount Parnitha, on the outskirts of Athens, has forced thousands of people out since late Thursday, with emergency crews facing winds and high temperatures as they battle to contain the blazes.

Bushfires have erupted in many parts of the country amid Greece's worst heatwave in more than 30 years, tearing through tens of thousands of acres of forestland, destroying homes and businesses and killing animals.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called it a "nightmarish summer" and said the government's priority "has been, first and foremost, to protect human lives".

The government planned to reimburse people affected by the fires and would designate the burned land as areas for reforestation, he said.

More than 1,000 firefighters, including reinforcements from Cyprus, France and Israel, have been deployed to fight the fires.

Blazes on Evia, Greece's second biggest island, are scattered from one end on the Gulf of Euboea across to the other, facing the Aegean Sea.

A helicopter drops water onto a forest fire near Malakasa, north of Athens. (Photo by Louisa GOULIAMAKI / AFP)
A helicopter drops water onto a forest fire near Malakasa, north of Athens. (Photo by Louisa GOULIAMAKI / AFP)

Hundreds of people, including many elderly residents, were taken by ferry late on Friday from the town of Limni on Evia as flames reached the shore.

Authorities have battled more than 400 wildfires across Greece in the past 24 hours, with the biggest fronts still burning in the north of Athens, Evia and areas in the Peloponnese, including Mani, Messinia and ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games.

Massive fires have also been burning across Turkey, Italy and Russia.

In Turkey, eight people have been killed and dozens more taken to hospitals during 10 days of fire.

Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday. 

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow. 

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.

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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion

The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".

The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.

He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.

"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.

As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.

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Sole survivors
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Updated: August 07, 2021, 1:19 PM`