Death toll climbs to 37 in violent Greek fires

ATHENS (AFP) - The number of people who have died in two violent fires raging in the Peloponnese in southern Greece has risen to 37, after the discovery overnight of 20 more bodies, firefighters said Saturday.

Among the latest victims were a mother and her four children, aged five to 15, who were engulfed by the fire on the road near the village of Mahista, along with seven other victims, police said. Three other children were among the first victims found on Friday.

Fire officials warned that the toll could rise further as firemen and soldiers continued searching the affected zones.

"We are in a state of national mourning.... We must do whatever is necessary so this does not happen again," said Greek President Karolos Papoulias, who is expected to visit the region on Saturday.

The country's Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis held a crisis meeting in Sparta, in the southern Peloponnese, after touring the fire-ravaged area on Friday, which he described as "a tragedy without precedent."

The charred bodies discovered Saturday were found in "cars, houses and in fields" in the area surrounding the village of Zacharo, in the southwest Peloponnese where 11 fatalities were found Friday, firefighters said.

"It's a Biblical catastrophe, the sight is horrible. I saw people burnt alive in their cars," Christos Kafiras, the prefect of the department of Ilia, told the private Mega television channel Friday.

Six people perished in another fire Friday on the Mani peninsula, a tourist haven in the southern Peloponnese, including four holidaymakers and a volunteer fireman who suffered a heart attack.

Fanned by strong winds, the fires continued to progress in the two southern areas, as well as in the regions of Taygete and Parnon, on the Peloponnese, but posed no immediate threat to inhabited areas, fire officials said. About a half a dozen villages have been evacuated.

In all, Greece on Saturday was battling 33 fires around the country, including 22 which have ignited since Friday night raising suspicions of possible arson, a fire services spokesman said.

Greece has called on the European Union for help as the southern European country has been fighting multiple forest fires since June, fanned by several heatwaves and months of drought. Tens of thousands of hectares (acres) have gone up in smoke.

Some 19 planes and 18 helicopters have been deployed to fight the blazes, while the army has sent 420 soldiers to reinforce the firefighters and has planes on stand-by if needed for rescue operations.