Greek authorities on Saturday arrested 13 people after fireworks launched from a yacht set off a new wildfire on an island near Athens as the country confronts a new season of deadly summer fires.
The mayor of the island of Hydra expressed “outrage” after the fire was started late on Friday and vowed legal action against those responsible.
Dozens of wildfires in Greece this week have left at least one person dead.
Photo: Reuters
The latest blaze was “caused by fireworks launched from a boat and burned the only pine forest on the island in a place that is difficult to access and has no road,” the Hydra firefighting team wrote on Facebook.
Thirteen people accused of involvement in the fireworks have been arrested after a fire service inquiry and were yesterday to be presented before a prosecutor, a fire service statement said.
No details on the suspects were given.
Greece has toughened its penalties for arson, with perpetrators now facing up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to 200,000 euros (US$213,850).
On top of calling for legal action against “irresponsible” people behind the fireworks, Hydra Mayor Giorgos Koukoudakis told Hellenic Broadcasting Corp that authorities had to create more anti-fire zones and roads through forests.
Another fire on Saturday raged on the island of Andros, emergency services said.
Four villages were evacuated and planes and helicopters were brought in to water bomb the flames.
The civil protection service called for extreme vigilance because the risk of fires was “very high,” particularly in the Attica region, the Peloponnese peninsula and in central Greece.
Greece has been bracing for a difficult summer as authorities warn that strong winds and high temperatures have increased the danger.
After its warmest winter ever, the Mediterranean country recorded its first heatwave of the year last week, with temperatures rising above 44°C in some locations.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
RSS