Country at the mercy of the wind

Strong winds continued to fan Greece's fiery nightmare on Wednesday as firefighters, including foreign contingents, battled blazes around the country and on the outskirts of the capital that have already claimed 20 lives.

The dispersion of firefighting forces to deal with multiple fronts was confirmed by Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias.

"Indicative of the extremely difficult situation we are facing is that alongside the mega-fire in Evros on Tuesday, the Fire Department was called to deal with nine high-risk fires in Attica, six in Viotia and one in Evia," he stressed. 

Many houses were burned in Agia Paraskevi in Viotia and the historic church of Ossios Loukas was in flames. A second fire broke out Wednesday noon in Evia, specifically in Dokos, Halkida, near a cemetery in the area, while earlier there had been a fire in a forest area in...