With swathes of the Peloponnese peninsula, the island of Evia and even eastern suburbs of Athens burning, thousands fled the blaze and hundreds of homes and businesses went up in flames, along with tens of thousands of acres of forest.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said the rash of forest fires "can't be a coincidence". He vowed the culprits would be found and punished, implying arsonists were responsible.

"All regions of the country are declared in a state of emergency in order to mobilize all means and forces to face this disaster," he said in a televised address to the nation.

Church bells tolled as hundreds of villages were evacuated and residents used garden hoses and buckets in a futile effort to save their homes from the raging fires.

 Source : Reuters Enviroment