Cyprus on Tuesday sent 60 firefighters and two trucks to help Greece tackle a killer blaze outside Athens.
The firefighters departed from Larnaca airport on a Greek airforce transport plane which also carried the trucks as well.
Justice Minister Ioanas Nicolaou had contacted his Greek counterpart to tell him that Cyprus will send reinforcements to help in containing a fire that has claimed at least 50 people.
“We can directly deploy a group of 60 people; firefighters, forest firefighters and civil defence officials. Once there is the possibility of air transport, two fire trucks will also be available,” said government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou on Tuesday.
“The two Governments are in constant communication and, as soon as possible, the President will have a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos,” he added.
Anastasiades has spoken with Pavlopoulos to give his condolences over the loss of life and offer Cyprus' support in any way it can.
A wildfire killed at least 50 people and injured more than 150 as it swept through a small resort town near Athens, with huge flames trapping families with children as they fled.
The fire which hit Mati, 29 km east of the capital, late Monday afternoon was by far Greece’s worst since flames devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens.
People scrambled to the sea as the blaze closed in close to the shore.
Hundreds were rescued by passing boats, but others found their way blocked by smoke and flames.
“I was briefed by a rescuer that he saw the shocking picture of 26 people tightly huddled in a field some 30 metres from the beach,” Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, told Skai TV.
“They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didn’t make it in time,” he said.
Mati is in the eastern Rafina region, a popular spot for Greek holidaymakers, particularly pensioners and children at camps.
Young victims
One of the youngest victims was thought to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation.
The coastguard later said the bodies of four more people were retrieved from the sea. In total, coastguard and other vessels rescued 696 people who had fled to beaches. Boats plucked another 19 people from the sea.
Some parts of Mati were still smouldering with white smoke early on Tuesday. Burned-out cars were scattered outside gated compounds where three- and four-storey buildings bore signs of fire damage.
“We are dealing with something completely asymmetric,” Alexis Tsipras said after cutting short a visit to Bosnia.
Greece issued an urgent appeal for help to tackle fires that raged out of control in several places across the country, destroying homes and disrupting major transport links.
Cyprus and Spain offered assistance after Greece said it needed air and land assets from European Union partners.
Authorities said they would be making use of an unmanned drone from the United States to monitor and track any suspicious activity.
Tsipras and Greek officials have expressed misgivings at the fact that several major fires broke out at the same time.
Wildfires are not uncommon in Greece, and a relatively dry winter helped create current tinder-box conditions. It was not immediately clear what started the fires.
