Nearly 500 firefighters and over 100 fire engines have been deployed to fight a massive wildfire threatening several mountainside suburbs of Athens.

The fire has been raging since Tuesday at the foot of Mount Pentelli, located about 26 kilometers north of the Greek capital. The fire has been fueled by strong gale-force winds that have complicated efforts by firefighting aircraft to extinguish the flames.

Authorities say they have evacuated at least 600 people from several neighborhoods as a precautionary measure, as well as a hospital and the National Observatory of Athens, and have also shut down traffic leading to the suburb of Pentelli.

A heatwave led to wildfires last year that destroyed over 100,000 hectares of forest and bushland across Greece.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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