BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Wildfires rage on across Greece
Firefighting teams from across Europe are continuing to battle forest fires raging across southern Greece, which have claimed at least 63 lives.
Some 27 villages have been entirely abandoned and many parts of the Peloponnese peninsula are still ablaze.
The Greek opposition has attacked the government's response to the crisis, calling it "totally incompetent".
Rescuers have evacuated villages in the Peloponnese as the fires threatened to engulf them, but there have been no fatalities since Monday, reports say.
"The fires are still out of control. At the moment there is no threat to the villages, but the direction of the wind is impossible to predict," a fire service spokesman told the AFP news agency.
On Monday, terrified residents in Frixa in the western Peloponnese were airlifted to safety by helicopters after being cut off by fire and thick black smoke.
Isolated villages have been cut off in the region, sparking fears that the death toll could rise further.
The government declared a state of emergency over the weekend as new fires, fanned by hot, gusting winds, continued to break out around Greece.
From heaven to hell
The village of Artamitha in the Peloponnese has become known as the "crematorium", says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant who is in the village near the town of Olympia.
Burnt-out wrecks of cars are testament to local people's bid to escape the flames "in a convoy of death".
Just across the road is a fire engine lying on its side, in which three firemen were killed.
The ground is charred and the surrounding countryside looks as though a bomb has been dropped on the area, our correspondent adds. No birdsong can be heard.
"I've been coming here for the last 15 years on holiday with my children. It was a paradise here and now it is hell," one woman who escaped the blaze told the BBC.
"The fire travelled faster than us when we tried to escape. In 10 minutes, the fires were all over the village."
In one car, a woman and her four children were burnt alive as they tried to flee the blaze. If she had stayed at home, she would have survived as her house was untouched by fire.
