greece s second largest island. areas in the peloponnese including arkadia and olympia, the birthplace of the olympic games are also affected. in evia, ferries are helping evacuate residents and holiday makers. there are reports that a firefighting aircraft has crashed, but with no casualties. our europe correspondent, bethany bell, has sent us this report from the island. flaming forests on the island of evia. firefighters struggling to stop the fires in the north of the island. and it has caused an exodus. there are long queues at the port. people are waiting to get on ferries to the mainland. holiday makers and some locals are leaving after villagers in parts of the north of the island were evacuated. chris, who works on evia as a singer, says the wildfires
creating perfect conditions, for the fires to burn. the region north of athens, and evia, greece s second largest island, are among the worst affected areas. ferries are helping evacuate residents and holidaymakers. there are reports that a firefighting aircraft has crashed, but with no casualties. our europe correspondent, bethany bell, has sent us this report from evia. .. flaming forests on the island of evia. firefighters are struggling to stop fires in the north of the island. and it has caused an exodus. there are long queues at this port. people are waiting to get on ferries to the mainland. holiday makers and some locals are leaving, after villages and parts of north of the island were evacuated. chris, who works on evia
this village is being evacuated. as thick orange smoke fills the air, people wait nervously for the ferry to depart. it s like the scene of an apocalyptic movie definitely because there s no sky, the sun is red. it s quite scary. it s time to leave. the fires are getting closer and closer to this village. just a few miles from here there are bright blue skies but here, the air is full of smoke and ash and it s making it harder for people to breathe. no one knows if this village will be spared. it s now up to the gods of the winds and the weather. bethany bell, bbc news, evia. surreal images in that report
ferries have been evacuating hundreds of residents and holiday makers from the greek island of evia, as wildfires continue to threaten homes and villages there. long queues of cars have formed at one port. residents are taking what they can with them, including pets. some have expressed their anger over what they see as failures of the greek authorities. here at the port, people are queueing up to get on ferries to take them back to the mainland. people have been receiving emergency alerts on their phones here in parts of the north of the island warning them to leave. we spoke to one woman who said that she had packed up herfamily into their car, they d managed to get away, but she was worried about whether she d be able to see her holiday home again. one other woman told me she s staying here for the moment, but she s worried about the air here it s full of smoke and there are bits of ash flying around, and she said her mother is 80 years old and she s worried about her being able t
tonight, evia is still burning and the flames are spreading towards one of the island s largest towns. the afghan government says american b52 bombers have killed more than 200 taliban fighters in a series of air strikes in the city of sheberghan where the insurgents claim to have taken control. shebhergan is the stronghold of former afghan vice president abdul rashid dostum, whose supporters fight against the taliban. it comes after the militants said they d captured zaranj in nimroz, close to the border with iran, in a major escalation of their offensive. they ve made sweeping gains since foreign forces started withdrawing from the country. the us and the uk have asked their citizens in afghanistan to leave the country immediately because of the worsening security situation. richard galpin reports. in this fast moving offensive, the taliban are claiming