 ATHENS
-- The death toll from wildfires raging in northwestern Greece
has risen to seven following the discovery of five elderly women's
bodies.
Further south,
a state of emergency has been declared in the province of Arcadia
in the Peloponnese, the site of 10 fires.
Officials said the bodies of two women, aged 75 and 72, were found
in the village of Kato Lavthani after fires swept through the
area near the mountainous border with Albania.
Two other
women, aged 83 and 80, were found in the villages of Rizo and
Kato Lithar and the body of a fifth woman, aged 72, was recovered
from the nearby village of Agia Marina.
An elderly
couple had been found dead in the same village, in the province
of Ioannina, on Thursday. At least one other person is missing.
The blaze,
which originated in Albania had a 40-kilometre (25-mile) long
front.
69 fires
in 24 hours
 A
firefighting helicopter drops water on a fire to prevent it from
reaching the Megaolpolis power station
In Arcadia,
more than 500 firefighters, 100 fire trucks, eight airplanes and
two helicopters have been battling a huge blaze near the town
of Megalopolis, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Athens.
A combination
of heat and high winds has fuelled devastating fires across the
Balkans and down into Greece this summer killing at least 10 people
in three months and destroying thousands of hectares of forest
and farmland.
In Croatia
a 16-year-old died as fire raged out of control around the coastal
capital of Split earlier in the week.
Blazes have
been reported in 11 different areas and Peter Jurjevic of the
Croatian forest inspection agency said 535 fires had destroyed
20,367 hectares (50,300 acres) of forests and undergrowth so far
this year.
In Bulgaria
the government said on Thursday that 69 fires had broken out in
24 hours.
In the worst-hit
area near Chirpan, 110 miles southeast of Sofia, local authorities
declared a state of emergency as more than 2,000 acres of forests
burned.
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