Greek authorities say 18 bodies have been found in area struck by major wildfire

ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters scouring the area of a major wildfire in northeastern Greece burning out of control for a fourth day found the bodies of 18 people, authorities said Tuesday.

They were examining whether the group might have been migrants who entered the country through the nearby border.

The discovery in the Avanta area of the city of Alexandroupolis came as hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildfires breaking out across the country, fanned by gale-force winds. On Monday, two people died and two firefighters were injured in separate fires in northern and central Greece.

With their hot, dry summers, southern European countries are particularly prone to wildfires.

Another major blaze was burning across Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands for a week, although no injuries or damage to homes was reported from that blaze.

European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.

In Greece, police activated the country's Disaster Victim Identification Team to identify the 18 bodies, which were found Tuesday near a shack in the Avanta area, Ioannis Artopios, a spokesman for the fire department, said in a televised statement.

"Given that there have been no reports of a missing person or missing residents from the surrounding areas, the possibility is being investigated that these are people who had entered the country illegally," Artopios said.

Alexandroupolis lies near the country's border with Turkey, along a route often taken by people fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East, Asia and Africa and seeking to enter the European Union.

Avanta, like many nearby villages and settlements, had been under evacuation orders, with push alerts sent to mobile phones in the area.

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