Eighteen burned bodies have been found in a remote, rural area in northern Greece where wildfires have been burning for days, the fire brigade says.

“Given that there have been no reports of disappearances or missing residents from the surrounding areas, the possibility that these are people who entered the country illegally is being investigated,” the fire brigade said.

The bodies were found south of the village of Avantas. The broader Evros region is a popular route for migrants crossing the river by the same name from Turkey into Greece.

“Searches throughout the entire area where the fire broke out are ongoing,” the fire brigade said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of firefighters have been struggling to contain a blaze that broke out near Alexandroupolis on Saturday and quickly spread, fanned by gale-force winds, sending plumes of smoke above the city and turning the night sky bright red.

Authorities said 65 patients at the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis had been evacuated by early Tuesday as a precaution onto a ferry in the port. Another 14 people were evacuated by a coast guard vessel from a beach near the village of Makri.

“Under extreme weather conditions, mainly due to gale-force winds, a huge effort has been made to manage fire fronts that broke out simultaneously in many parts of the country,” fire brigade spokesman Ioannis Artopios said late on Monday.

“The hours we are going through are extremely critical.”

The burned body of a man believed to be a migrant was found in a rural area in Lefkimi, near Alexandroupolis, on Monday, a local police official told Reuters.

Summer wildfires in Greece are common but have been made worse in recent years by unusually hot, dry and windy conditions that scientists have linked to climate change.

In Greece’s northern seaside city of Kavala, two firefighters were injured on Monday while trying to contain a blaze threatening homes in the village of Dialekto, the fire brigade said.

Fires also burned on the island of Evia near Athens, as well as on the island of Kythnos and in Viotia in central Greece. 

-AAP