Sawt Falasteen - Thousands of tourists desperate to flee fire on Greek island

Some had walked for hours through the blistering heat to reach the airport.

"We had to keep walking," British tourist Kelly Squirrel told AFP at the international airport on the Greek island. "So we walked for about six hours in the heat."

She was one of thousands of tourists whose vacations have been brought to an abrupt and panicked halt by the violent fire raging for the sixth consecutive day in the south of the island.

Rhodes sits in the Dodecanese archipelago off Greece's southeast coast and the fires there started with the tourist season in full swing.

Squirrel said that it while she was sitting by her hotel pool on Saturday, that she "saw the flames" approaching.

"The police came to reception and told everyone to get to the beach," she continued. "So we ran down to the beach. We just sat there for fifteen minutes, half an hour."

As the fumes became thicker, "we were told to move along the beach", she said.

- Huddled in the departure hall -

In the departure hall of the airport in the northwest of the island, several dozen kilometres from the fire, some holidaymakers were sleeping, on the floor, next to their luggage.

Others were huddled in front of the departure board, trying to spot a flight to Hamburg, Amsterdam or Lille, in northern France. Some passed the time playing cards, while children were trying to get some rest by lying on inflatable beach toys. Claire O'Donavan

On vacation on the island off the Turkish coast, Claire O'Donovan from the UK explained that she too had taken a long walk under the sun with her suitcases.

"We (finally) managed to get a truck that took us to another beach," she said.

"At the hotel, we were told to 'wait here, we'll be back in an hour or two', and then they disappeared. So there we were, it was pitch dark, you could see the fire in the distance."

Rhodes, which counted 2.5 million visitor arrivals in 2022, is one of Greece's leading holiday destinations. It has hotels all along its eastern coastline.

Greek television broadcast images of long lines of people, some in beachwear, lugging suitcases along the island's roads on Saturday, when the evacuations were ordered.

World tourism leader TUI announced that it was suspending all flights bringin in more tourists to Rhodes. "Those customers currently in Rhodes will return on their intended flight home," it added. British low-cost carrier Jet2 also cancelled flights carrying incoming tourists.

- Saved at the last minute -

A total of 12 towns and villages in the centre and south of the island were evacuated, including Lindos, one of the main attractions for travellers, with its hilltop Acropolis.

German tourist Paul F., 23, on vacation with his girlfriend Lara in Rhodes, told the daily Bild that he "was saved at the last moment from the fire" while staying at a hotel.

"It was so hot and the smoke was so dense that we couldn't have lasted more than 10 minutes," explained the man from Bielefeld in western Germany.

"That's when buses finally arrived and evacuated the tourists," he added. "Some people, in a panic, ran to the beach and tried to find boats so they could get on board," he told the German newspaper.

Island officials arranged for the thousands of people forced to leave their homes or hotels to shelter in gymnasiums, schools and conference centres on Saturday night. On Sunday evening, some were preparing to spend a second night there.

Greece has been hit by a heatwave for the past 10 days, which intensified over the weekend with temperatures reaching over 46°C locally.

The fire in Rhodes was fanned by strong winds, while on Sunday, according to the EMY national weather service, the thermometer registered 36°C.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST