Greece wildfires: pursued by an inferno, they ran into the sea as their town burned and 80 died
Residents tell of hellish ordeal in the seaside town of Mati, where many victims burned just metres from the sea, while others died in the waters where they sought refuge from the flames
A heavy silence hangs over the burnt-out car wrecks and charred animal remains in Mati, a small coastal town east of Athens which on Tuesday was a picture of ash-covered desolation.
Fires have killed at least 80 people in this area, the authorities say, about a third them on the same plot of land.
The scorched bodies of 26 victims at a single villa were found huddled in groups of four or five, including small children, said Vassilis Andriopoulos, a Red Cross rescuer on site.
Perhaps they were families, or groups of friends, or strangers helping each other “entwined in a last attempt to protect themselves as they tried to reach the sea”, which was only 30 or 40 metres away, he said.
