American Marconi Wireless News - Three die in Greece as gales stoke fires, disrupt ferries

More than 200 firefighters backed by 11 water bombers and seven helicopters were battling a blaze in Keratea southeast of Athens, Costas Tsigkas, head of the association of Greek firefighter officers, told ERT state television.

"It's a difficult fire," he said, citing gusts of wind and reporting that several communities had been evacuated.

Firefighters discovered the body of an elderly person inside their burned home in Keratea and the wind was hampering water bombers' ability to operate, fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told a press briefing.

An AFP journalist in the nearby town of Palaia Fokaia, around 45 kilometres (28 miles) south of Athens, saw fire consume a house and thick smoke choke the air.

Firefighters were sprinting to direct hoses and douse the flames, while a helicopter swooped overhead to drop water.

Earlier, a separate blaze on the island of Cephalonia was brought under control, local officials said, while the situation "has improved" on the Peloponnese peninsula west of Athens, Vathrakogiannis announced.

The civil protection ministry had said wind gusts would reach 88 kilometres an hour, especially in the southern Aegean and the Sea of Crete.

National weather service EMY said the gusts would weaken after midnight, but the civil protection ministry placed several areas under the highest alert for wildfires on Saturday, including the Attica region, which includes Athens.

The coastguard had earlier said a Vietnamese man and woman from a cruise ship group had died at the Sarakiniko beach on the tourist island of Milos in the Cyclades.

"The man and woman were found unconscious in the sea and were taken to the local health centre," a coastguard spokeswoman said.

"The woman fell in the water and the man apparently tried to save her."

- 'Left stranded' -

The gales confined many ferries to port, the main mode of transport connecting thousands of islands and their crucial tourism sector.

The coastguard said most ferries were unable to depart on schedule from Piraeus and other Athens ports, especially to the Cyclades or Dodecanese islands. Several services were cancelled and others postponed.

At Piraeus, hundreds of travellers crowded outside a ferry bound for the Cycladic islands of Paros and Naxos, waiting for news on a possible departure.

Nearby, stranded travellers surrounded by rucksacks and suitcases formed a huge queue outside a ticket office and made desperate phone calls hoping to make rearrangements to save their journeys.

"There's huge lines, huge commotion, everyone's waiting in the sun and it's a very tough time," said Philip Elias, an American tourist.

Strong winds are common in Greece at this time of year, and firefighters have already faced several major blazes this summer, including on the islands of Evia and Chios as well as in the western Peloponnese.

T.Ward--AMWN