The speed with which the fire spread caught many people unawares
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Greek emergency workers continue to find the charred bodies of people burned to death by forest fires that are raging in the south of the country.
Officials raised the death toll from the fires over the past two days to 44.
Searches of burnt cars, houses and fields were still turning up the remains of those who could not escape.
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis called the situation "an unspeakable tragedy". The government appealed for EU help and later declared a state of emergency.
Greek newspapers are calling the southern Peloponnese region a "crematorium", says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.
The fires have been moving so fast that people have been cut off before they could escape. With emergency services overstretched, desperate residents and local officials called television and radio stations to appeal for help.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk