Mass evacuation of 19 thousand people from Greek island of Rhodes

Athens: At least 19,000 people have been evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes as wildfires continued burning for a sixth day on three fronts, Greek authorities said on Sunday. The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection said it was the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.

Local police said that 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels. Six people were briefly hospitalized with respiratory problems and were later released.

Package holiday companies TUI and Jet2 have canceled flights to Rhodes. Jet2 said it was canceling five flights due to leave for Rhodes yesterday. It said it would fly the five planes to Rhodes empty to bring back customers on the island. TUI said it was canceling all its flights to the island until at least Tuesday. 90 percent of the evacuated tourists are from European countries.

The British ambassador to Greece, Matthew Lodge, said the U.K. government was sending a rapid deployment team to support British nationals on Rhodes.