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THIS is the horror moment hundreds of terrified tourists who had fled from burning villages in Rhodes raced for safety.
The footage shows scores of people with young children desperately waiting to be loaded into boats in total darkness as wildfires raged behind them on the Greek island.
In the video, masses of restless and exhausted tourists are stranded on the beach and hoping to be loaded onto the next boat by the Red Cross.
There is shouting and muffled crying as a menacing red glow lights up the sky behind the evacuees caused by flames nearing the beach.
Greek authorities are saying it is the largest evacuation mission that has ever taken place in the country as they battle with the biggest blaze Greece has ever seen.
Over 30,000 people have been forced to move after being threatened by the wildfires, including more than 2,500 ferried straight off beaches.
PE teacher Dan Jones and his family, including his three young sons, were forced to wade into the sea and climb into a fishing trawler to evade the fires.
He described it as: “The scariest moment in my entire life.”
“I don’t know how they’ll process this when the dust settles, but what brave boys,” he added alongside a picture of his sons now onboard the boat with the fires now behind them.
Coastguard vessels and dozens of private boats took part in a rescue of over 2,000 tourists and locals from beaches on Saturday late into the night.
British Embassy officials in Athens have urged all Brits to evacuate.
The flames have burned for nearly a week on Rhodes as Greece has been battered by an extended spell of extreme heat that has made it challenging to contain the fast-spreading blaze.
More than 200 firefighters and volunteers fought the blaze during the night, while the air support started early on Sunday as the fires spread.
Extraordinary scenes yesterday showed columns of people carrying their luggage and children on-foot trying to escape.
The fire has scorched swathes of forest and burned down buildings and hotels since breaking out in a mountainous area on Tuesday.
The blaze spread to at least three hotels in the seaside village of Kiotari which caught fire on Saturday.
And the battle is expected to worsen today, with more whipping winds blasting across the island and fanning the flames.
“The wind is expected to become more intense from 12 to 5 pm, without excluding the possibility that could happen earlier,” said fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis.
“This is not a fire that will be over tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he added. “It’ll be troubling us for days.”
The fires during the night reached the village of Laerma and were burning houses and a church there, while many hotels were damaged by the flames that on some occasions even reached the sea.
Firefighters, backed by aircraft that dropped water, battled three fronts on Sunday, setting up firebreaks to prevent flames from spreading to a dense forest or threatening more residential areas.
Fleeing Brits have spent the night in makeshift camps across the island – with young kids forced to sleep on the floor or on mattresses in classrooms and gyms.
It comes as Greece continues to face high temperatures – with forecasts of up to 45C going into next week.
The country also experienced an “insidious and dangerous” heat blast earlier this month with temperatures also soaring to 40C.
Weather experts have declared 2023 an El Niño year – a natural phenomenon that occurs cyclically and causes fluctuations in the global climate.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said it will raise temperatures around the world, and the effect is likely to continue for the rest of the year.
And despite the heat this summer, Europe’s record temperature of 48.8C – recorded in 2021 in Sardinia, Sicily – has not been reached and is currently not forecast to be broken.
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