Two dead, hundreds evacuated from fires on island near Athens

. Two people died and hundreds of weekend bathers were hurriedly evacuated Sunday after two fires broke out on the Greek island of Salamis near Athens in less than half an hour, the fire department said. While another fire on the Aegean island of Skyros was brought under control, a fire department spokesman told AFP that "two bodies were recovered" from the Peristeria beach area in the south of Salamis. "Over 570 people were evacuated on coast guard patrol boats and other vessels," a coastguard spokeswoman told AFP. Fire department communications director Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the separate fires had broken out in Peristeria and near Selinia, two popular beaches in the island's south and east, within 20 minutes of each other. With hundreds enjoying a sunny Sunday at the beach a short boat ride from Athens, the civil protection ministry issued four evacuation orders in quick succession. The Greek blazes come as Europe battles a succession of wildfires breaking out in tinderbox-like conditions, driven by widespread droughts and high temperatures that scientists have linked to climate change. But two people, reportedly an elderly couple, died before firefighters could get to them, Vathrakogiannis said in a televised address. With the wind reaching up to 61 kilometres (38 miles) per hour, the fire "spread rapidly in seven minutes", he said.