A British pilot escaped with his life after two firefighting helicopters collided while tackling raging wildfires in Greece, an accident that claimed the lives of two crew members.
The mid-air collision occurred over the Psatha area, west of Athens, involving two Bell firefighting helicopters.
The crash killed a Danish pilot and a Greek fire service officer when one of the aircraft crashed to the ground.
The second helicopter, carrying the British pilot and another Greek fire officer, landed safely. Authorities have yet to release the identities of either the survivors or the victims.
Television footage captured the dramatic moment one of the helicopters burst into flames before crashing after what appeared to be a rotor collision.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had earlier warned that the country was facing severe weather conditions, with wind speeds reaching 60mph.
“When the winds blow with such force, even the dozens of aircraft we have at our disposal cannot operate safely,” he wrote on Facebook.
Firefighters continued to battle multiple wildfires across the country, with nearly 500 personnel deployed around the coastal village of Porto Germeno, about 70 kilometres northwest of Athens.
Emergency crews were working to prevent the fast-moving blaze from advancing towards the western outskirts of the capital after it spread across a mountain overnight.
Elsewhere, around 100 firefighters were deployed to contain another wildfire in Aigialia in the northern Peloponnese.
On the island of Cephalonia, a popular tourist destination, another wildfire erupted late on Saturday.
Greek authorities arrested a 44-year-old man on Sunday over allegations that he deliberately started the blaze, according to the Greek news agency ANA.
Meanwhile, the National Observatory’s climate tracker estimated that more than 6,500 hectares of land had been destroyed by separate wildfires around the Gulf of Corinth, including those affecting Porto Germeno.
The observatory also warned that weather conditions continued to favour the spread of fires, noting that meteorological conditions remained adverse “mainly due to strong northerly winds, which, however, have partially weakened compared to previous days”.
