A heat wave that has gripped southern Europe turned deadly on Tuesday after Greek firefighters found 18 charred bodies in an isolated village in the north of the country where wildfires had been raging for days, Reuters reported.

Greek firefighters are trying to control the firePhoto: Spyros BAKALIS / AFP / Profimedia

The mass media in Greece write that the lifeless bodies were discovered south of the village of Avantas in the north of the country and they probably belong to migrants. The Evros region, where the village is located, is a popular route for migrants crossing Turkey into Greece to try to reach the rest of the European Union.

The gruesome discovery comes after the charred body of another man was found in the region on Monday. According to a representative of the local police, he is also considered a migrant.

The announcement comes as firefighters are also battling blazes in Spain, Italy and Portugal. In Greece, two more forest fires broke out near the capital Athens, which was facilitated by weather conditions.

In Spain, where authorities have issued a very high or extreme fire risk warning after a fourth heat wave wreaked havoc there, firefighters are working to stabilize a massive fire that has broken out on the island of Tenerife. This fire has not been controlled for a week.

Meteorologists are predicting temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius and even higher in some large areas in the south-west and north-east of the Iberian Peninsula.

In Greece, patients were evacuated from hospitals due to forest fires

In the Greek port city of Alexandroupolis, forest fires led to the evacuation of dozens of patients who were admitted to local hospitals, including newborn babies. The ferry was turned into a floating hospital after 65 patients from the university hospital were evacuated here.

Elderly patients were placed on mattresses on the floor of the ferry’s dining room while paramedics attended to them.

“I have not seen anything like this in 27 years of work,” Nikos Giokzidis, a nurse, told Reuters. You drag everywhere, patients here, infusions there… like in the war, like a bomb exploded,” he added.

“Weather conditions are extreme and will remain extreme for the next few days,” Greek fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vartakogiannis told ERT.

On Monday, Greek firefighters announced that they had extinguished 53 forest fires in the past 24 hours.