British firefighters to battle Greece wildfires – as footage shows boat escape while island burns
British firefighters are being deployed to tackle the raging wildfires in Greece – as new footage shows people escaping by boat as flames fill the sky.
It comes after the death of a volunteer firefighter and the evacuation of thousands of people from an island near Athens, as well as towns north of the capital.
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said teams from Merseyside, Lancashire, South Wales, London and West Midlands fire services will fly to Athens this weekend to battle the blazes alongside Greek firefighters.
People are evacuated off the island of Evia as fires rage in the village of Limni
Thousands of people have been evacuated by ferry
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “I’ve seen first-hand this week the devastating wildfires ripping through Greece and the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with our Greek friends at this difficult time.
“I’ve asked the National Fire Chiefs Council to send out a specialist team to provide support in responding to this emergency. I am immensely grateful to the brave firefighters for stepping forward and volunteering to help, and their expertise will be invaluable in supporting the Greek emergency services.”
The wildfires broke out amid the country’s most severe heatwave in 30 years, with temperatures soaring to more than 40C (104F) in some areas.
Fires burned through Greece for a fifth day on Saturday as flames swept through a town near Athens overnight and thousands of residents and tourists were evacuated by ferry from the island of Evia, east of the capital, in apocalyptic scenes shown in new footage.
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Dramatic evacuation of fire-hit Greek island
The blaze on Mount Parnitha has seen crews grappling with winds and high temperatures in a bid to contain it.
“We’re talking about the apocalypse, I don’t know how to describe it,” Sotiris Danikas, head of the coastguard in the town of Aidipsos, Evia, told state broadcaster ERT.
Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said firefighters faced “exceptionally dangerous, unprecedented conditions” as they battled 154 wildfires on Friday, with 64 still burning into the night.
A firefighter battles a wildfire burning in the suburb of Thrakomakedones, north of Athens
“Over the past few days we have been facing a situation without precedent in our country, in the intensity and wide distribution of the wildfires, and the new outbreaks all over (Greece),” he said.
While the flames appeared to die down later on Saturday, winds were forecast to strengthen – meaning there was still a high threat they would flare again.
During an emergency briefing, Mr Hardalias said: “Under no circumstances can we be complacent. We are fighting a very big battle.”
A resident evacuates the area with his animals as a wildfire rages in the suburb of Thrakomakedones, north of Athens
Homes and businesses have been left blackened and destroyed, although authorities have been unable yet to provide detailed figures for how widespread the damage is.
Homes and other buildings have been destroyed
Shifting winds and new flashpoints on Friday afternoon caused the blazes outside Athens and Evia to repeatedly change direction, in some cases returning to threaten areas that had narrowly escaped destruction earlier in the week.
In the last 24 hours, more than 400 wildfires have broken out across Greece, with the biggest still burning in Evia and areas in the Peloponnese including Ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games.
High temperatures have caused the huge wildfires in Greece – with people being forced to evacuate their homes.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described it as a “nightmarish summer”, adding the government’s priority “has been, first and foremost, to protect human lives”.
At least 20 people have needed hospital treatment across Greece and the causes of the fires are under investigation.
Firefighters battled 154 wildfires on Friday, with 64 burning into the night
In neighbouring Turkey, authorities evacuated six more neighbourhoods near the Mugla province town of Milas as a wildfire burned some 5 kilometres (3 miles) from a power plant.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said they were the worst wildfires in the country’s history and six fires were still burning in on Saturday.
On the island of Evia, people were evacuated by cruise ships after other routes were closed off by flames
So far, eight people have died in the fires that have burned through Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coastal regions for 11 days, forcing thousands of residents and tourists to leave homes and hotels.
Hundreds of police are hunting armed men who attacked a prison van in France – with a convict reportedly nicknamed “The Fly” escaping.
Two male prison officers were shot dead and three others seriously injured during the ambush on a motorway in Incarville, northwest France, at around 9am.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said one of the officers leaves behind a wife who was five months pregnant, while the other was a 21-year-old father-of-two.
He said two of those injured are in a critical condition after Tuesday’s ambush.
The officers were transporting convict Mohamed Amra, 30, when they came under heavy fire, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.
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CCTV shows car smash into prison van
Footage shows a black car driving into the front of a white van, and later two armed men patrolling near a tollbooth on the A154 motorway.
Several men used two vehicles to target the van – with one later found burnt-out, a police source told French news agency AFP.
Mohamed Amra’s nickname is said to be ‘The Fly’, according to French media
Amra had been serving an 18-month sentence for “aggravated thefts” in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, according to BFM TV.
The French broadcaster said his nickname is “The Fly”.
Police sources also said Amra was involved in drug dealing, suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille, and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.
He had reportedly appeared before a judge in Rouen on Tuesday morning, accused of attempted homicide.
The attack on the van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, according to reports in France.
Footage shows the aftermath of a collision
A prison source told Le Parisien that the escaped inmate had tried to saw the bars off his cell two days ago.
He had reportedly been placed in solitary confinement and his surveillance level raised after the escape attempt.
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Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Amra was a “particularly monitored detainee” while in prison.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said “several hundred police officers” had been deployed to “find these criminals”.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X: “This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all.
“The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”
“Everything, I mean everything, will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” added justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
“These are people for whom life weighs nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged, and they will be punished according to the crime they committed.”
World
Georgia: Protesters and riot police face off outside Tbilisi parliament after divisive ‘foreign agents’ bill passes
Protesters have smashed barriers at Georgia’s parliament after it approved a divisive “foreign agents” bill.
Riot police used tear gas and sprayed crowds with water cannon as they entered the grounds of the Georgian parliament in the capital Tbilisi.
Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, who is covering the protests in Tbilisi, said there was a “febrile atmosphere” and a “real sense anger, frustration and massive disappointment” that MPs voted for the bill.
Follow live: Riot police move in on Georgia protesters
Hundreds of law enforcement officers guarded parliament. Pic: Reuters
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Protesters break through parliament barricades
The legislation is seen by some as threatening press and civic freedoms and there are concerns it’s modelled on laws used by President Vladimir Putin in neighbouring Russia.
The proposed law would require media and non-governmental organisations and other non-profit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
Demonstrations have engulfed Georgia for weeks ahead of the bill’s final reading on Tuesday.
Police used a spray to keep back the crowds. Pic: AP
Pic: David Mdzinarishvili/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Critics also see it as a threat to the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.
The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests.
Pic: Reuters
Authorities were seen detaining protesters near the parliament building. Pic: Reuters
Opponents have denounced the bill as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatise independent news media and organisations critical of the Kremlin.
Read more:
What is the ‘Russian law’ that has Georgians out on the streets?
Georgian opposition politician beaten by hooded thugs
‘Putin’s puppet’: Who is billionaire behind Georgia unrest?
A brawl erupted in the parliament as MPs were debating the bill on Tuesday.
Georgian Dream MP Dimitry Samkharadze was seen charging towards Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of main opposition party United National Movement, after Mr Khabeishvili accused him of organising mobs to beat up opposition supporters.
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Fighting in Georgia’s parliament
‘Absolutely insane’
Former Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili called the bill a “joke” and a “replica” of one introduced by Vladimir Putin to “control his own society” in Russia.
He said the Georgian people would “not fall under that mistake” and that protesters were standing “firm, calm, peaceful and for freedom”.
“We will not let them prevail. We will overcome,” he told Sky News.
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Protesters angry after ‘Russian law’ passes
A protester said it was “absolutely insane that a country like Georgia has accepted this bill as it’s a complete violation for our future”.
The medical student said the bill “makes us more far away from Europe and the rest of the world”, while bringing Georgia closer to the Russian government.
Another protester outside parliament said: “Our government is a Russian government, we don’t want Russia, Russia is never the way, I’m Georgian and therefore I am European.”
One demonstrator said they had been trying to protest “peacefully” but were now “feeling anger, pain and disappointment that again in our history there is a government that goes against our wishes”.
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The president of the European Parliament has shown support for the Georgian people in a post on social media.
“Tbilisi, we hear you! We see you!” Roberta Metsola said.
Alex Scrivener, director of the Democratic Security Institute, said there was time for the law to be turned around.
He told Sky News: “The law passing isn’t the end of the vote.
“The president of Georgia who is aligned with the protesters can veto legislation and that buys us time.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto it but her decision can be overridden by another vote in parliament, controlled by the ruling party and its allies.
Two prison officers have been killed after an attack on a convoy carrying an inmate – with the convict reportedly on the run.
Three other people are seriously injured after the reported “ramming car attack” on a motorway in Incarville in the northwestern France region of Eure.
Footage from the scene shows two hooded men with firearms and a prison van which appears to have been in a collision with a black vehicle.
Several men used two vehicles to target the convoy, a police source has told the French news agency AFP.
The escaped detainee is a man named Mohamed who was convicted of “burglary theft” and is nicknamed “The Fly”, according to Le Parisien.
He had appeared before a judge in Rouen this morning accused of attempted homicide, BFM TV reports.
The attack on the prison van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, the French broadcaster adds.
The escaped prisoner fled with those who attacked the convoy on Tuesday, Le Parisien reports.
One of the vehicles used to target the convoy was found burned-out in a location which was not specified by the police source who spoke to AFP.
The prison convoy was targeted at a tollbooth on the A154 motorway at about 11am local time, according to reports.
French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti posted on X: “A prison convoy was attacked in Eure. Two of our prison officers have died, three are seriously injured.
“All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and their colleagues.”
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