Greek Police Minister Resigns Over Wildfires Disaster

A wildfire rages in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece. Photo: Reuters

Greece's police minister, Nikos Toskas, has resigned on Friday after the deadliest wildfires in Greek history, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ office said.

The premier has been under pressure to sack members of his administration after the fires at the coastal resort of Mati on July 23, the deadliest in Greek history.

Eighty-eight people, many of them children, died in the fires with another 40 in hospital and one still listed as missing.

Nine of the injured are in a critical condition.

“The prime minister has accepted Toskas’ resignation,” the PM’s office said in a statement after a meeting with the minister.

The main opposition conservative New Democracy party said Toskas’ resignation was “too little, too late”, arguing that Tsipras - who has accepted political responsibility for the tragedy - should also step down.

The fires struck the coastal community popular with holidaymakers, burning with such ferocity that most people fled to the sea with just the clothes on their backs.





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