Greece ordered the evacuation of hospitals and homes near Athens as wildfires spread despite "superhuman" efforts to fight the flames, authorities said.
Civil defense authorities ordered five more municipalities to be evacuated after hundreds of people were displaced from eight villages on Sunday.
"Civil defense forces fought hard throughout the night, but despite superhuman efforts, the fire developed quickly," said fire department spokesman Vassilis Vatrakogiannis, quoted by ERT.
"At the moment, he has reached Mount Pentelicus and is headed in the direction of Penteli," he added.
According to Vatrakogiannis, two hospitals in Pentili were evacuated at dawn - a children's hospital and a military hospital.
The brigade had dispatched 510 firefighters and 152 vehicles, and 29 aircraft were due to take off at dawn.
"Forest fire near you. Follow the instructions of the authorities," said text messages sent to people in the Attica area, telling them which direction to run.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cut short his vacation and returned to Athens on Sunday evening to deal with the crisis.
By the late afternoon of August 11, firefighters had tackled 33 of the 40 fires that had broken out in the past 24 hours, but were battling seven more in the sweltering Mediterranean summer heat. | BGNES
