Hundreds moved as bushfires rage across Greece for fifth day

Ferries have transported people from the island of Evia, near Athens

Police officers help firefighters extinguish a fire in Thrakomakedones, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens. Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP

Hundreds of people have been moved from Greece after fires raged for a fifth day in a row.

Ferries took people from the island of Evia, east of Athens, on Saturday.

The fire on Mount Parnitha, on the outskirts of Athens, has forced thousands of people out since late Thursday, with emergency crews facing winds and high temperatures as they battle to contain the blazes.

Bushfires have erupted in many parts of the country amid Greece's worst heatwave in more than 30 years, tearing through tens of thousands of acres of forestland, destroying homes and businesses and killing animals.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called it a "nightmarish summer" and said the government's priority "has been, first and foremost, to protect human lives".

The government planned to reimburse people affected by the fires and would designate the burned land as areas for reforestation, he said.

More than 1,000 firefighters, including reinforcements from Cyprus, France and Israel, have been deployed to fight the fires.

Blazes on Evia, Greece's second biggest island, are scattered from one end on the Gulf of Euboea across to the other, facing the Aegean Sea.

A helicopter drops water onto a forest fire near Malakasa, north of Athens. (Photo by Louisa GOULIAMAKI / AFP)

Hundreds of people, including many elderly residents, were taken by ferry late on Friday from the town of Limni on Evia as flames reached the shore.

Authorities have battled more than 400 wildfires across Greece in the past 24 hours, with the biggest fronts still burning in the north of Athens, Evia and areas in the Peloponnese, including Mani, Messinia and ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic Games.

Massive fires have also been burning across Turkey, Italy and Russia.

In Turkey, eight people have been killed and dozens more taken to hospitals during 10 days of fire.