Rhodes

United Kingdom Ambassador to Greece Matthew Lodge announced on Sunday that a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office rapid deployment team was being sent to Greece to facilitate the evacuation of British nationals from fire-stricken areas on Rhodes.

The situation remains dire on the Greek island of Rhodes, which has been engulfed in fires for several days.

The evacuation of tourists and local residents continued until late last night. About a thousand people were transported by buses. With a large lifeboat and more than 30 private vessels, people are being evacuated from Rhodes. To date, their number is over 30 thousand people.

A large blaze burning on the Greek island of Rhodes for the fifth day has forced authorities to order an evacuation of four locations, including two seaside resorts.

Thousands of tourists had to be evacuated from three hotels that were later damaged by the flames on the southeastern coast of the island of Rhodes on Saturday as a huge wildfire that has been burning on the island since Tuesday morning continued to spread swiftly.

Greek authorities placed three areas in the eastern Aegean island of Rhodes in a state of emergency on Thursday, allowing it to mobilize all forces as wildfires continued to burn.

Four villages and a hotel are being evacuated on the southeastern Aegean island of Rhodes as strong winds continue to stoke a wildfire that broke out in the early hours of Wednesday near the village of Apollonas in the western mountains.

Police on the southeastern Aegean island of Rhodes arrested the owners of two beachside restaurants on Monday as part of an ongoing crackdown on rampant zoning and environmental violations across the Greek isles.

The much-discussed issue of unlawful constructions on Greece's beaches is, unfortunately, not limited to Mykonos and the Cyclades, but plagues other important island destinations as well, most notably Rhodes in the southeastern Aegean. 

A 26-year-old British tourist died after he was struck by lightning while swimming during a thunderstorm in Aghia Agathi, eastern Rhodes on Monday.

The first indications on the course of this year's tourism season in Greece from the international tourism exhibition ITB Berlin 2023 are particularly encouraging.

The major tour operators are reporting booking levels at Greek destinations for this summer that in some cases have even reached 50% of their available packages.