Evangelos Tournas

Two firefighting aircraft and one helicopter along with their nine-member crew that had been pledged by Turkey to help Greece fight the large wildfires that have scorched swathes of land around Athens arrived in Athens on Saturday.

A team of 40 Romanian firefighters, the first if six European units expected to arrive in Greece for this year's fire season, arrived in the country on Wednesday, as part of an annual EU-wide plan to assist member-states prone to devastating wildfires.

A 16-member caretaker government, led by senior judge Ioannis Sarmas, will be sworn in at noon at the Presidential Mansion.

The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianidis, the Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Evangelos Tournas and the Secretary General are going to Heraklion, Crete. Civil Protection, Vassilios Papageorgiou, after the strong earthquake of 5.8 Richter that occurred today at about 9:15 in eastern Crete.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a meeting on Wednesday on the close cooperation required between the ministries of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Environment and Energy and National Defence with respect to actions for the restoration of fire-stricken areas - especially flood protection - and the timely preparation of the 2022 firefighting period.