Around 250,000ha of forest have been destroyed in the fires that have hit Greece this summer.
Greenpeace Greece has estimated the figure after the Greek fire service said that the spread of 250 blazes currently affecting the country had been worsened by heat and strong winds.
The Peloponnese peninsula in the south-east of the country has seen 20,000 hectares damaged by the fires, Captain Philippe Risser, who is leading a 62-man team in fighting the flames in the area, told AFP news agency.
Nikos Haralambidis, the director of Greenpeace Greece, told TTJ that the loss of 250,000ha of land in one year would surpass the previous record figure by 100,000ha.
Olympia, the birth of the Olympic games, and other historic sites around Greece have been threatened by the fires, with more than 60 people killed in conditions that have been described as the deadliest in the country’s history.
