A desperate Greek father has been told girls he spotted on television on a rescue boat are not his nine-year-old twin daughters who went missing as they fled forest fires which killed at least 81 people.
Yiannis Philipopoulos made a televised appeal for help tracking down Sophia and Vasiliki who vanished in the chaos of the wildfires raging throughout the country.
The girls were on holiday in Rafina with their grandparents 74-year-old Philip, and Sofia, 61, who were also unaccounted for, and he has been searching ever since.
He went to a morgue, hospitals and police stations and even gave a DNA sample during his desperate search, but thought he finally spotted them wrapped in blankets getting off a rescue boat.
However, in a dramatic twist, another man came forward to say the youngsters in the video were in fact his daughters, leaving Sophia and Vasiliki still missing and feared dead. Philipopoulos has been told to ‘assume the worst’.
The nine-year-old girls, Sophia (left) and Vasiliki (right), are still missing feared dead after another father said the girls in the video were actually his
Mr Philipopoulos (right) was interviewed on Greek TV talking about his search for his missing daughters
Greek father Yiannis Philipopoulos appealed for help locating his missing twin daughters, who he says he spotted alive in TV news footage (pictured) showing people getting off a fishing boat that had rescued them as they fled
Mr Philipopoulos said the girls went missing along with their grandparents amid the wildfires that engulfed popular resort spots near the Greek capital. His parents, 74-year-old Philip (right), and Sofia (left), 61, are unaccounted for
Yannopoulous Kostas, spokesman for the charity that issued an alert for the missing twins, said their family was awaiting DNA tests to confirm the fate of the girls.
Kostas, who runs the ‘Smile of Child’ organisation that helps parents find missing children, said: ‘We know all the 26 children who were taken to hospital have been identified and all but four have now left. The four in hospital will leave today.
‘There is no confirmation yet, but DNA tests are being carried out on the bodies in the mortuary. We have to assume the worst as there has been no word of the twins since Monday.
‘The father was given hope they might be alive as the grandparents car was not touched by the fire, but we have not had anything to suggest they are alive. But as yet no official confirmation.’
The search highlights the plight of many families looking for relatives in the wake of the fire, which has been likened by locals to ‘Dante’s Inferno’.
Many people went into the sea to avoid approaching flames and were picked up by rescue boats. There is no definitive count on the missing.
Dozens are still unaccounted for as emergency crews today continued the grim job of sifting through the charred remains of hundreds of homes and cars in fire-hit areas around Athens.
Many have taken to social media to post pictures of their loved-ones – but ambulance officials have said there is little hope of finding anyone alive in burnt out buildings.
Hope was already gone for Irish newlywed Brian O’Callaghan-Westropp, whose body was found on Wednesday after he got separated from his wife Zoe Holohan as they ran for their lives.
The couple were caught up in the fire on their honeymoon near Mati, a seaside town 25 miles east of Athens that has been the worst affected, and tried to escape in a passing car’s boot.
However, they had to get out and run and got separated. Ms Holohan survived and was recovering in hospital from burns to her head and hands.
Yiannis Philipopoulos had gone to a morgue, hospitals and police stations and even gave a DNA sample during a desperate search for his children, who were on holiday in Rafina with their grandparents. One of the twins is pictured
The ‘Armageddon’ fires left at least 80 dead, the majority in Mati where horrified rescuers found the burnt remains of families huddled together near a cliff.
The charred bodies of 26 people, including small children, were discovered at a villa, ‘perhaps families, friends or strangers, entwined in a last attempt to protect themselves as they tried to reach the sea’, rescuers said.
Others died trying the escape in their cars or having failed to leave their homes in time with many reportedly drowned after leaping into the sea.
The death toll has now surpassed the 77 killed in 2007 on the southern island of Evia.
One local, Stelios Nikolaou, whose house was ruined, described the blaze as ‘Dante’s Inferno’.
He told The Times: ‘Flames 15 metres high were ripping down the slope at an unbelievable pace. I barely managed to get my wife, son and Fidel, the dog, out of the house and we raced to the sea.
‘People were screaming, cars were exploding, pine cones were popping like grenades. One of them even hit Fidel, setting him ablaze and forcing me to throw him into the sea. The fire was so hot and the destruction so overwhelming that even mice were jumping off the cliffs, diving into the sea.’
Dozens of people are still unaccounted for but search and rescue teams have scaled back their house-to-house searches looking for bodies.
Authorities believe many of those listed as missing are dead with their remains in the Athens city morgue.
Relatives have been told to provide DNA samples so that identification can be carried out.
Many of the bodies are burned beyond recognition and can only be identified by dental records.
Queues of people have been forming outside the Coroners office in Athens with loved ones wanting to provide a DNA sample.
Meanwhile as public anger towards the Government over the loss of life rages fire chiefs have said people in Mati and the adjoining town of Rafina had just 20 minutes to escape the inferno.
Criticisms has been levelled at local officials for lack of an evacuation plan which contributed to the high death toll.
Poor building controls that allowed homes to be built in a haphazrd way and narrow roads that often end in a dead end have also been blamed for contributing to a lack of escape route.
But fire chief Dimitris Stathopoulos, head of the union of fire brigade employees, said the residents of Mati would have had just 20 minutes to reach safety after 60mph gusts of wind fanned the wildfires.
‘Not even 1,000 airplanes would have helped prevent this catastrophe,’ said Dimitris Stathopoulos.
‘In that cursed hour, the fire became a blowtorch aimed at the settlement.’
Rescue teams are going from house to house as they look for missing people or any signs of life in the village of Mati, near Athens
While many houses were burned to the ground, there were areas where properties remained untouched highlighting the unpredictability of the rampaging blaze
He said wildfires were a common occurrence durng the summer but in the past the wind blew in from the sea towards the mountains and sheielded Mati from harm.
But on Monday afternoon it switched direction and powered the flames towards the town.
Such was the ferocity of the gales that meant flames were able to leap across a highway that seperates Mati from the pine forest slopes.
Survivors have told how flames reached 50ft in the air and fireballs were sent shooting across the sky.
Elias Psinakis,the Mayor of Marathon which includes Mati, said they had an evacuation plan in place but the speed of the fire meant it could not be put into action.
He also said lack of planning for the town contributed to few escape routes. The main road leading down towards the sea became choked with cars and many of the other roads are only wide enough of a single vehicle.
Psinaki said: ‘There is a civil protection plan, every municipality has one, but there is no time to do anything when the wind is so strong.
‘Unfortunately, this area is chaotically built. People couldn’t find a way out to save themselves
‘Most of the roads are dead ends … and the rest are very narrow.’
Residents who fled from Mati are slowly returning but are faced with clogged streets from hundreds of people who have driven from Athens to look at the burned out homes.
Tempers flared after cars became stuck in long traffic jams on the narrow streets near the sea front.
One resident said: ‘It is disgusting that they come here to look and take photographs. It is not a tourist site and they are ghouls.’
Dramatic footage captured from a passenger plane emerged showing entire communities ablaze on the approach to the Greek capital.
Officials suggested early on that arson may have been to blame for the deadly infernos as it emerged 15 fires started simultaneously in the Athens area as part of moves to ‘destabilise the country’.
But others dismissed the theory amid claims sparks from pylons caused the disaster. Shell-shocked authorities have also been accused of a slow response to the gale-driven fires, which laid waste to an entire village in a matter of minutes.
Meanwhile, police said four people were arrested for suspected looting in the district of Neos Voutzas in the hillside above Mati.
The suspects, aged between 22 and 26, were arrested by members of the Greek Police’s motorcycle-riding DIAS squad after breaking into a home evacuated during the deadly inferno.
Residents and terrified holidaymakers were overtaken by the flames in homes, on foot or in their cars. AFP photographers saw the burnt bodies of people and dogs
Supplies are being prepared to be distributed for aid at a sports hall after the wildfires hit the village of Mati, in Rafina, Greece
Wasteland: Shocking images show how fire ravaged the countryside around Mati before descending on the coastal resort
A helicopter drops water on woodland in a bid to dampen smouldering trees in the hillsides above Mati on Wednesday night
Many people fled to the sea to try to escape the flames as they tore through towns near Athens stoked by high winds, reducing pine forests to ash and devouring hundreds of buildings.
The disaster has been described in Greece as a ‘national tragedy’, while Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia and announced three days of national mourning.
The government has not yet said how many people are still missing from the fires, which broke out on Monday, as firefighters continue to battle blazes in some areas.
Miltiades Milonas, vice president of the Greek ambulance service, said: ‘Unfortunately, at this stage we do not expect to find more people injured, only more dead.’
Officials raised the possibility the blazes could have been started deliberately by criminals out to ransack abandoned homes.
‘I am really concerned by the parallel outbreak of these fires,’ Tsipras said as supreme court prosecutors announced they had opened an investigation into the causes of the fire. Government officials claimed this may have been part of moves to destabilise the country.
But some say an absence of an emergency evacuation plan and an unprepared state mechanism were the main culprits behind the tragedy.
A ‘seasoned firefighter’ told Kathimerini that the Fire Service, the Attica Regional Authority and the General Secretariat for Civil Protection were to blame for a slow response to the ‘mega fire’ – despite the highest Level 4 fire risk warning being issued over the weekend in the Attica region.
Sources told the website that the Kineta blaze, west of Athens, was started by sparks seen coming from power pylons.
Greek prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cause of devastating forest fires which swept through communities ‘like a flamethrower’ leaving scores dead. Fire crews were still battling fires in the Kineta area near Athens last night
Flames continued to rage as firefighters battled to quell the wildfire at the village of Kineta, near Athens. The blazing fire has so far claimed scores of lives, including a mother and son from Poland
Hope was already gone for Irish newlywed Brian O’Callaghan-Westropp, whose body was found on Wednesday after he got separated from his wife Zoe Holohan as they ran for their lives
Desperate families have released pictures of missing loved-ones as rescuers sift through the charred remains of houses looking for survivors
Residents and terrified holidaymakers were overtaken by the flames in homes, on foot or in their cars. AFP photographers saw the burnt bodies of people and dogs.
As world leaders including Pope Francis affirmed their solidarity, Athens said 308 engineers would arrive on site to assess the damage.
But ‘the problem is what is still hidden under the ashes,’ said emergency services vice president Miltiadis Mylonas.
One Belgian was among the victims, said Belgium’s foreign minister Didier Reynders, while in Warsaw Poland’s government said a Polish woman and her son also died.
Some 187 people have been hospitalised, with 82 still being treated on Tuesday evening, including almost a dozen children, most of whom were in a ‘serious condition’, the fire services said.
The speed with which the fire northeast of Athens spread took many by surprise, and is believed to have contributed to the high death toll.
‘The sky was red with flames’: Idyllic resort now a ‘ghost town’ as locals describe horror of ‘flamethrower’ blaze
By Paul Thompson in Greece for MailOnline
Horrified locals in Mati had described how the sky was ‘red with flames’ as a ‘flamethrower’ blaze tore through their homes and businesses, killing scores of people and leaving the resort like a ‘ghost town’.
Rescuers are starting to scale back their search operation and an eerie silence surrounds the village where harrowing tales have emerged recounting the deadly inferno.
Many of those who perished were trapped in their cars as they tried to reach the main coastal road and the safety of the sea.
While all fires in Mati and the surrounding pine forests had been extinguished smouldering piles of rubble in some of the burnt out and collapsed homes could still clearly be seen.
Horrified locals in Mati had described how the sky was ‘red with flames’ as a ‘flamethrower’ blaze tore through their homes and businesses, killing scores of people and leaving the resort like a ‘ghost town’
Rescuers are starting to scale back their search operation and an eerie silence surrounds the village where harrowing tales have emerged recounting the deadly inferno
Many of those who perished were trapped in their cars as they tried to reach the main coastal road and the safety of the sea
An acrid, pungent smell hangs over the resort about 25 miles from Athens.
Wide areas of pine forests above Mati were reduced to ash with the heat so intense metal railings on a block of flats leading down to the seafront are twisted and buckled.
Cars have melted into the road such was the ferocity of the blaze. Broken glass and charred car parts litter the main road leading to the seafront.
Many of the residents had hoped the dual carriage highway linking Mati to the nearby resort of Nea Makri would act as a fire-break
But with gale force winds driving the flames quickly swept down a half mile long road leading to the seafront devouring everything in its path.
With the roads no more than single lane cars became trapped with no means of reversing and escaping.
Authorities said many of those who died were found in or close to their vehicles. A group of 26 were found huddled together near a villa after being overcome by the thick choking smoke.
While all fires in Mati and the surrounding pine forests had been extinguished smouldering piles of rubble in some of the burnt out and collapsed homes could still clearly be seen
It is thought they had abandoned their cars but had failed to reach the sea where they had hoped to be rescued.
Police patrolled the area to make sure abandoned homes were not looted but few buildings were left untouched by the devastating blaze which locals said swept down from the hillside like a ‘flamethrower.’
The two main hotels in the resort, The Mati and Ramada, escaped serious damage. Mangers at the hotels said they did not have any British guests with most holidaymakers from Scandanavian countries and Poland.
The tourists were evacuated to Athens and the nearby resort of Nea Makri about 3km away and completely untouched by the fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes.
In Mati shop owner Nikolina Thanae told how many people underestimated the blaze when it began late afternoon on Monday.
She said ‘ We have had many fires before and they have also been brought under control very quickly. But Monday was very hot. The hottest day of the year.
With gale force winds driving the flames quickly swept down a half mile long road leading to the seafront devouring everything in its path
The two main hotels in the resort, The Mati and Ramada, escaped serious damage. Mangers at the hotels said they did not have any British guests with most holidaymakers from Scandanavian countries and Poland
‘We could see the smoke but were not too concerned. I coninued to work in the shop and then a man came in and his arm was badly burned. He was asking for help, but all the phone lines were down.
‘More people were coming in. On man came in and was asking if we had a spare shoe as he has lost his.’
Nikolina said she and her husband fled towards the beach and feared their mini supermarket would be destroyed.
‘The sky was just red with flames and it was terrifying. There were injured people on the beach and a poor six year old boy who was very badly burned. People were calling for help on their mobile phones, but it too so long for help to arrive.’
Nikolian returned to the Mati supermarket today to begin a clean up operation. With no elecricity all the frozen goods have had to be thrown out but she admits she is fortunate her business survived.
Less than 200metres away a bar had been completely gutted. Empty beer bottles stood on charred tables and plastic awning had melted into the frame.
‘I don’t know if the town will ever recover,’ Nikola said. ‘Many people do not have insurance and will not be able to re-build.’
‘We couldn’t see any fire. The fire came suddenly. There was so much wind, we didn’t realize how it happened,’ said Anna Kiriazova, 56, who survived with her husband by shutting themselves in their house instead of trying to flee through the flames.
Kiriazova said they doused their house in the Mati area near Rafina with water from a garden hose, and credited the fact that their window frames were metal instead of wood for their home being spared.
‘We shut ourselves in the house, we closed the shutters, we had towels over our faces,’ she told The Associated Press. ‘The inferno lasted about an hour. I have no words to describe what we lived through.’
Her 65-year-old husband, Theodoros Christopoulos, said the couple decided to take shelter in their home because the narrow roads outside were jammed with cars.
‘There was a great panic because the whole street was blocked by cars,’ Christopoulos said. ‘Shouting, hysteria, they could see the fire was coming with the wind. It already smelled a lot, the sky was black overhead and in no time at all the fire was here.’
The mother and son from Poland were among the dead when the vessel flipped in the water amid rough seas after picking up guests from a hotel in Mati as forest fires tore through the resort, 25 miles from Athens
Scores are dead after a series of wildfires in Greece. The resort of Mati, 25 miles from Athens, has been left devastated and rows of cars were destroyed as fierce fires swept through the area in a matter of minutes
Dashing to the water was the only way to escape for most villagers – but many perished behind a wall of flames and toxic smoke
Dramatic video footage showed people fleeing by car as the tourist-friendly Attica region declared a state of emergency.
Athanasia Oktapodi, whose home is surrounded by pine trees, said she first spotted the fire moving down the hill ‘and five or ten minutes later it was in my garden’.
‘I ran out like a crazy person, got to the beach and put my head in the water. Then the patrol boats came,’ said the 60-year-old.
Fire service spokeswoman Stavroula Maliri said firefighters were still searching for more victims and taking ‘dozens of calls’ from people looking for relatives.
Winds of above 60 mph in Mati caused a ‘sudden progression of fire’ through the village, said Maliri.
‘Mati no longer exists,’ said the mayor of nearby Rafina, Evangelos Bournous, adding that more than a thousand buildings and 300 cars had been damaged.
‘I saw the flames outside the window of our hotel. I thought it would explode,’ said Alina Marzin, a 20-year-old German tourist who had been staying at the Capo Verde hotel in Mati on Monday evening with her brother and their parents.
At least six people died trying to escape the flames into the sea. Some 715 people were evacuated by boats to Rafina, the government said.
‘People are shocked, lost. Some of them have lost everything: children, parents, homes,’ said Red Cross spokeswoman Georgia Trisbioti.
The European Union activated its Civil Protection Mechanism after Greece sought help. Several countries said they were sending aircraft to help fight the flames.
Pictures show the scale of the inferno which swept through the Rafina area overnight, fanned by strong winds and high temperatures
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted the EU ‘will spare no effort to help Greece and the Greek people’, while Pope Francis spoke of his ‘deep sadness,’ sentiments echoed by EU and NATO leaders.
NATO head Jens Stoltenberg offered the alliance’s full solidarity with Greece, whose government earmarked financial aid for victims’ relatives.
Interior Minister Panos Skourletis said the priority was to extinguish a fire still burning in Kineta, 50 kilometres from Athens.
Near the town of Marathon, residents fled to safety along the beach, while 600 children were evacuated from holiday camps.
Showers were set to see temperatures around Athens drop slightly after hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).