Greek fires: illegal construction by residents blocked evacuation routes

Greek investigators saw "serious indications" that a fire that killed at least 82 people outside Athens was deliberately put in place, said a government official, Nikos Toskas. the fire that erupted in several places over a short period of time Monday is probably due to arson.

"We have serious indications and significant findings of criminal activity regarding arson," said Toskas. "We are troubled by many factors, and physical discoveries are the subject of investigation."

He declined to provide further details.

UNAUTHORIZED CONSTRUCTION WORKS HAVE CAUSED MORE FALSE

The defense minister has said that construction work not authorized by residents has contributed to the horrific toll of forest fires in Greece [19659005] Panos Kammenos said the illegal construction by residents of the pine forest "It's a crime of the past," he said.

"This coast of Athens, all these properties, the majority are without a license, and they occupied the coast without rules."

Mr. Kammenos' comments occur when angry residents arrested him when he went to the scene of the fires , accusing the authorities of not doing enough in the early hours of the disaster. [19659006"WeleftyouatthemercyofGod"and"yaplusrien"acriéunhabitant

"People are dead for nothing!" Another woman was sobbing.

Local resident Giannis Kardiakos says that he stayed in the area until midnight. These efforts to fight the fire and to save those who had fled to the beaches started too late.

"There was no protection, there was nothing! … I say things such as they were," he told the Associated Press

"I do not lie, we do not talk politically here," he added, before bursting into tears.

ADDITIONAL BODIES

The fires, which erupted on Monday (local time), hit coastal villages popular with holidaymakers and burned with such ferocity that most people fled to the sea. all security.

The survivors spoke of heartbreaking scenes including whole families burned alive in their homes.

"We were alone, there was no one to help us. "Everyone did what he thought he had to do to survive," Evi Kavoura told AFP

"I feel a pain in my heart, a very heavy load."

There is still no official word on the number of people reported missing after the disaster, but the death toll of 82 up to now is already the epidemic of the deadliest fire of this century in Europe.

forest fires, some of the bodies that have been recovered are so badly burned that the authorities are struggling to identify them.

"The procedure is difficult, more difficult than that of other mbad disasters with which we have dealt in the past." Said the coroner Nikolaos Kalogrias.

"Here, the main cause of death was the burn, in most cases the complete burning (of the body), so the identification is very difficult. "

To help, the Federal Criminal Police Department of Germany has sent a team of its forensic experts to Greece L & D The team includes veterans of major disasters such as the crash of the plane in 2002 on Ueberlingen, Germany, which killed 71 people and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that at least 225 000 deaths in several Asian countries

. At the morgue, relatives were informed of the steps to be taken to bring one of the detained bodies to a missing person, including DNA samples and dental records.

Firefighters are still struggling with pockets of flames caused by the unprecedented outbreak around Athens as the government announced a series of measures to compensate those affected.

Conduct the investigation to determine how this week's forest fires began. The mayor of the area where he broke up said that there could be sparks coming from a cut pylon power cable.