Arson suspected as the cause of the Greek wildfire

AP/ BBC: Greece has “serious indications” that a fire that killed at least 83 people near Athens earlier this week was started deliberately.

Frantic relatives headed to the Athens morgue Thursday to seek the fate of loved ones still missing after Greece’s deadliest forest fire in decades, a blaze that Greek authorities said they increasingly suspect resulted from arson.

Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas said satellite image analysis and ground inspections provided “serious indications” the fire that broke out in multiple places within a short time frame Monday and killed at least 82 people was set deliberately.

“We have serious indications and significant findings of criminal activity concerning arson,” Toskas said. “We are troubled by many factors, and there have been physical findings that are the subject of an investigation.”

He declined to provide more details.

Earlier Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told the BBC that illegal construction had contributed to the disaster.

He said building by residents between wooded areas was a “crime” that had resulted in blocking escape routes.

Mr Kammenos was confronted by angry locals as he visited areas devastated by fires east of Athens this week.

Arriving in Mati, where many people died, Mr Kammenos was surrounded by residents who accused him of abandoning them.