The Department of Foreign Affairs is advising Irish citizens in Rhodes to be alert and stay away from areas affected by wildfires.
A spokesperson said the Department has been contacted by a number of Irish citizens impacted by the fires.
They also said that anyone planning to travel to the island should check with their travel operator or hotel to see if the area they are planning to travel to is impacted by the wildfires.
🟠 Fires🔥 on Rhodes, #Greece🇬🇷 - 23 July 2023 #Copernicus🇪🇺 #Sentinel-2🛰️ Full-size ▶️ https://t.co/ufQwoPii5h + https://t.co/eRwEKcguYu #RemoteSensing #OpenData #SciComm #fires #wildfire #Greecewildfires #Rhodes #rhodeswildfires Images are about 53 kilometers wide pic.twitter.com/PjlHXOXXFE
— Pierre Markuse (@Pierre_Markuse) July 23, 2023
30,000 people have been moved to safety on Rhodes.
The Irish Travel Agents Association says most Irish tourists currently in Rhodes are staying in northern resorts which are largely unaffected.
President of the Organisation, Paul Hackett, says beaches in Corfu have also been evacuated.
"We were getting reports last night of evacuations from one of the beaches in the North of the Island.
"We have no other reports of any resorts or hotels being evacuated at this stage.
"In terms of the volume of Irish consumers in Corfu; Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Tui have two flights each a week.
"That's 6 in total.
"1,000 t0 1,200 Irish people are on the Island at any given time."
Emergency services are battling fierce wildfires, as Greece faces the longest heatwave on record.
To support them, we have deployed over 450 firefighters and 7 planes from Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Croatia 🇭🇷, Cyprus 🇨🇾, France 🇫🇷, Italy 🇮🇹, Malta 🇲🇹, Poland 🇵🇱, Romania 🇷🇴 and Slovakia 🇸🇰. pic.twitter.com/UjX5WsjSyj— EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid 🇪🇺 (@eu_echo) July 23, 2023
Amy Leyden was on holiday with her family when they were told to evacuate overnight.
Ms Leyden told Newstalk: "The police ran into our hotel and said 'you need to go now, you're not going to make it'. It was just terrifying.
"We've got our 11-year-old daughter with us and we were walking down the road at 2am and I didn't think we were going to make it."
Thousands have been evacuated to safety from the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia.
By James Cox & Beat News
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