Greek firefighters gained ground Thursday against a wildfire outside the third-largest city of Patras, while planes bombed water on blazes on three other fronts.

Firefighters faced “scattered” pockets of flames around Patras, Greece’s main port to Italy, after an overnight struggle, fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said.

The fire close was “still active” however in the eastern outskirts of the city of 250,000, he said.

Citing data from the EU’s Copernicus satellite monitoring programme, the Athens national observatory said fires in the Patras area, the Aegean island of Chios, the Ionian island of Zakynthos and near the western city of Preveza had burned over 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of forest and agricultural land.

Authorities said three men aged 19 to 27 had be

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