Danish tourists evacuated from hotels in Kos due to forest fire
Danish tourists who were evacuated from their hotels on the Greek island of Kos on Monday due to a forest fire can now start to return. Both TUI and Apollo have announced that the evacuated tourists can now go back to their hotels. TUI has 9 Danish guests in the area, while Apollo has 20. The fire, which led to the evacuation, is now under control.
“Greek authorities have now deemed it safe to return to the area that was evacuated yesterday,” wrote Mikkel Hansen, communications manager for TUI Denmark, in a statement on Tuesday morning. This means that the guests are now starting to return by bus or private transport, and authorities expect everyone to be back at their hotels by the afternoon, according to Apollo’s communications department.
Spies, which also has guests in the affected area, has been informed by authorities that their 37 guests can return. 12 of them had to be evacuated.
“Text messages have been sent to the guests about this, and that they will be picked up at the hotels where they were taken to last night,” wrote Sofie Lund, communications and press manager at Spies, in a statement on Tuesday morning.
The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, warned on Monday that the country is facing a dangerous summer with a high risk of forest fires. He mentioned that June has been marked by drought and unusually high gusts of wind.
Swedish and Norwegian tourists were also evacuated on Kos, according to the Scandinavian news agencies TT and NTB. The tourists were evacuated to other hotels, schools, and a football stadium.