GREEK firefighters have found the bodies of 18 people in an area of north-eastern Greece ravaged by a major wildfire, authorities said today.

The bodies were found near a shack in the Avanta area in the north-eastern Alexandroupolis region, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopios said in a televised statement.

Given that no reports of missing people had been filed in the area, authorities are now examining the possibility that the casualties were migrants who had entered the country across the nearby border with Turkey, Mr Artopios said.

Hundreds of firefighters are struggling to control major wildfires that are continuing to burn out of control in the north-east of the country, while a battle to stop flames spreading is also under way on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands.

Strong winds in that part of Greece have fanned the flames and prompted the evacuation of villages and a city hospital.

Dozens of wildfires have broken out across the country, with the most severe entering its fourth day and encroaching on the north-eastern port city of Alexandroupolis.

On Monday, two people died and two firefighters were injured in separate fires in the north and the centre of Greece.

The fire risk level for several regions, including the wider Athens area, was listed as extreme today.

Deputy Health Minister Dimitris Vartzopoulos, speaking on Greece’s Skai television, said smoke and ash in the air around the Alexandroupolis hospital was the main reason behind the decision to evacuate the facility.

“We evacuated within four hours,” Mr Vartzopoulos said.

Near Athens, a new fire broke out in the morning in the Aspropyrgos area on the capital’s western fringes, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders for two villages in the area.

Last month, a wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists.

Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia.