By Helena Smith
Grief has turned to fury in Greece, where victims of the deadliest wildfires in more than a decade are blaming an inept state apparatus for the scale of the disaster.
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The wildfires, which have also left countless missing, more than 180 injured and at least 11 fighting for their lives, are now being described as the worst to hit the continent since the second world war. No other country, with the exception of Australia, has suffered such loss of life or destruction as a result of wildfires this century.
The government’s lack of preparedness to deal with a disaster of such scale has been especially criticised. On Wednesday Alexis Tsipras’s administration announced generous relief measures but the public anger showed little sign of abating.
Local mayors, instead, stepped up complaints of inadequate evacuation plans. Residents took to the airwaves to complain of the deadly traffic jams that emerged when misdirected drivers saw their only escape routes cut off by authorities. Trapped in the inferno, many died in their cars. “Why did you close Marathonas?” one sobbing woman asked Kammenos, referring to the main road that leads from Mati to Athens.
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