Athens, 27 July 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Boosted by weeks of drought and strong winds, numerous fires have broken out in central Greece, including one at a Greek Air Force ammunition depot that caused large explosions and sent holidaymakers to seek safety at the beach.

Explosions from the depot fire could be heard several kilometres away, according to state television ERT. People managed to evacuate the ammunition depot in time, government sources told dpa.

Several windows in the nearby region of Nea Anchialos smashed due to the shock waves of the explosions, said a reporter on state radio.

It was not initially clear whether there were any casualties.

The fire brigade was so far unable to intervene due to the risk of further explosions. Emergency services could not even drop water from helicopters, so as not to endanger the pilots.

The explosions stopped about an hour later, according to eyewitnesses, reporters on the scene said. Many people on holiday in the area, largely Greek families, fled to the beach on Nea Anchialos.

The region is home to one of the Greek Air Force's largest airport bases. The ammunition depot that the flames reached is located about 4 kilometres north of the Nea Anchialos airport, state television reported.

The type of ammunition stored in the warehouse initially remained unclear. Three squadrons of F-16 fighter jets of the Greek Air Force are stationed at the military airport of Nea Anchialos.

Other fires in central Greece were also raging out of control on Thursday, the regional administration said.

Nearby, two people were killed after flames reached the suburbs of the large Greek port city of Volos, the state broadcaster ERT reported. Thousands of farm and wild animals have died, the broadcaster said.

Pavlos Marinakis, spokesman for the Greek government, said that a man and a woman died in the fires and offered his condolences.

Marinakis said that 177 forest fires broke out across Greece in the past three days.

The Greek Civil Defence evacuated about 20 villages east of Volos. Fire-fighting planes and helicopters tried to extinguish the fires. Hundreds of residents are also taking part in the fight against the flames, journalists on the scene reported.

On the holiday island of Rhodes where forest fires had forced tens of thousands of tourists to evacuate in recent days, fires were meanwhile dying down.

Numerous small fires continued to burn in the south-east on Thursday. The Greek fire brigade was fighting the flames together with volunteers and firefighters from Romania and Slovakia, the state radio reported.

Tourists are not in danger, the reports said. In some places, such as Gennadi, the clean-up was even beginning, ten days after the severe fires started.

"It is indescribably important that tourists keep coming," said Carmen Di Ninni, a German citizen with a holiday home on Rhodes.

She said if tourists stay away, "then the disaster will be indescribable, then there will also be no money to rebuild what has burnt."

Meteorologists have warned repeatedly that powerful winds occurring amid the drought are an "explosive cocktail." Strong northerly winds overnight in south-eastern Europe have ended almost two weeks of extreme heat in Greece, when temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius.

On Thursday thermometers across the country read around 35 degrees, according to the weather office.