Wildfires spreading across the Greek island of Rhodes are leaving thousands of tourists in limbo, wondering where they will spend the night.
Meanwhile, holiday companies are cancelling flights to the island. Jet2 has cancelled flights to Rhodes all next week, while TUI stopped flights there until Wednesday.
EasyJet has cancelled package holidays but is still running flights to the island – as are British Airways, Ryanair, and others.
According to the BBC, the Greek fire brigade says the situation on the island is one of the most difficult it has faced, and warned it could worsen.
Greek authorities say 19,000 people have been evacuated by land and sea to safety. No injuries have been reported.
Rhodes has battled wildfires since Tuesday. High winds are expected this afternoon, which could hamper efforts to contain the blaze.
The fire department spokesperson in Rhodes says the service is currently using 10 firefighting airplanes, eight firefighting helicopters, 266 firefighters, 49 fire trucks and hundreds of volunteers, among others, to tackle the blaze on the island.
Staff and volunteers have been joined by 31 Slovakian firefighterswith four fire trucks, alongside two French firefighting airplanes and two Turkish firefighting airplanes.
In a statement, they say it’s the “largest evacuation operation” ever on the island.