Platania

As efforts to tackle a big forest fire at a nature reserve on the island of Evia continued for a fourth day on Friday, authorities were examining indications that the ongoing blaze was caused by arson.

Greek authorities sent reinforcements Thursday to firefighters battling a major forest fire in a nature reserve on the island of Evia as water-dropping aircraft tried to extinguish the flames in a hard-to-reach canyon.

The overnight efforts of nearly 400 firefighters, aided by calmer winds, have confined the wildfire on the island of Evia into a gorge away from the village of Platania, which had faced an imminent threat Wednesday.

A huge environmental disaster was unfolding Tuesday in central parts of the island of Evia, where a large wildfire was raging over a front stretching up to 12 kilometers, with the country's civil protection authority declaring a state of emergency.

A 19-year-old man faced a prosecutor in Kozani, northern Greece, on Saturday on rape charges after allegedly sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in the village of Platania on Friday night.

According to the woman's testimony, the 19-year-old attacked her while she had been on her way home, and dragged her into a construction site at knifepoint.