Image source, PA Media

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has this morning faced questions over the fires in Greece - and what they mean for British tourists.

Speaking to broadcasters on a visit to the West Midlands, the PM told reporters that his "paramount priority is the safety of British nationals."

He added that Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden chaired a Cobra meeting on the matter yesterday.

"He's been monitoring the situation closely", Sunak noted, adding that Dowden was also in close contact with Greek local authorities.

The PM continued:

Here's some more on EasyJet's flights mentioned by our reporter Azadeh Moshiri below.

The airline has confirmed to the BBC that both of today's repatriation flights will leave this afternoon (so, any time now).

But there was no further information at the time of writing.

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Rhodes airport

Our team is at Rhodes airport, as repatriation planes arrive for tourists reeling from the wildfires over the weekend.

Families are having to huddle together on the floor. They feel deserted and let down by travel companies.

Kelly Squirrell and her family were staying at a hotel in Kiotari, one of the areas most affected by the fires. They are travelling with easyJet.

"I am absolutely disgusted, I worked in travel myself. No support whatsoever. I want an explanation. Where are they?", she tells us.

EasyJet has encouraged customers who have been evacuated to get in touch with its customer services team, as well as contact the airline's airport staff.

But Kelly says she is only receiving information about repatriation efforts and planes from friends and family back in the UK.

She says she hasn’t been able to find any EasyJet employees at the airport and recalls a difficult few days to get there:

The family slept on sun beds at another hotel.

Kelly says some customers were landing in Rhodes when EasyJet were still operating flights, only to be ushered into rescue buses as soon as they arrived.

EasyJet has announced it is operating two rescue flights with a total of 421 seats today and a third on Wednesday, in addition to its nine scheduled flights between Rhodes and the UK.

Holidaymakers are trying to get out of Rhodes after many have been forced to leave their hotels. Here's a selection of images from the airport.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Turning our attention again to Corfu - where fires have been blamed on arson.

Chariton Koutscouris, the region's deputy mayor of tourism and construction, said the blazes were down to a "group of people".

"They get pleasure out of this with the pain of the other people," he told the BBC.

Koutscouris said officials had a "suspicion" fires would be started this weekend.

Officials are said to have been warned on Friday by the fire department chief that someone who started two fires last week would start another. "He was right," Koutscouris said.

Wildfires in Rhodes are still "out of control" after seven days of fighting them, the island's deputy mayor has said.

Speaking to local broadcaster ERT, Konstantinos Taraslias said the fires' impact on tourist areas had added to the challenges - with thousands of visitors needing to be evacuated and given shelter.

He said firefighters had been arriving on Rhodes to help battle the "devastating" situation, with volunteers and other locals "doing the best they can" to support people.

Taraslisas said someone even arranged music and a clown show to entertain stranded children.

"We're doing everything we can to support what is our life here, our local economy [tourism]," he says.

Noting that it's high season for holidays in Europe, Taraslias added that many people on Rhodes were extremely concerned about the impact of the fires on visitors and locals alike.

We've been hearing about the situation on Rhodes. Newly-released drone footage shows some of the damage inflicted by fire.

This is the view of the seaside town Kiotari.

Image source, EPA

Our colleagues at BBC Radio 5 Live also heard this morning from a Briton on holiday in Corfu, where fires have sparked evacuation orders for tourists and locals.

Mark Lythgoe, from Brackley, told the station he was staying in a hotel on a peninsula surrounded by water and had not been evacuated.

"Across the bay there is a range of hills and small mountains," he explained.

"A large part of those hills is on fire, still a lot of smoke. It’s much more dramatic at night. The top of the hill was red with flames everywhere, a very dramatic scene."

Mark said the hotel was located a 45-minute drive across the coastline.

"You wouldn’t think anything is going on," he added. "Everyone is calm. The locals know the way of the land, the waiters have been so helpful and lovely."

We've heard from a UK holidaymaker on Rhodes who spent two nights in a disused school.

Connie Woods, from Northern Ireland, told BBC Radio 5 Live that she was escorted from her hotel in Pekfos at 00:30 local time on Saturday (22:30 BST on Friday) following a government alert.

She, and others from her hotel, were taken to the school where they are still waiting for updates.

Connie, who is on a package holiday with TUI, said none of them had heard anything this morning.

On the first night, people were forced to sleep on the floor or on small chairs. The following morning, locals brought food and other essentials, such as nappies.

She told 5 Live that young holiday reps had been giving most of the updates. "I honestly felt so bad for them because they were trying their hardest to give us the answers, but they didn't have any information themselves," she said.

Neighbouring countries have deployed firefighting aircraft to Rhodes to support Greek emergency services tackling a major fire, according to a fire department spokesperson.

Vasilis Varthakogiannis says eight aircraft - two of which were sent from Turkey and one from Croatia - are tackling the blaze near the village of Asklipeio.

A further ten helicopters - including three from Egypt - are also supporting efforts to control the fire.

Image source, EPA

You can now tune into our dedicated live stream by clicking the Play button at the top of this page.

The feed is starting with Nicky Campbell's regular phone-in on BBC Radio 5 Live, with discussion topics to include the impacts of the fires on Greek homes, jobs and wildlife - as well as tourism.

A little earlier, we showed you pictures on the ground from Corfu and Rhodes.

New satellite images show what Rhodes currently looks like.

Image source, Maxar Technologies

Image source, Maxar Technologies

In the last few minutes, the BBC has been speaking to Theofanis Skembris, deputy mayor of North Corfu.

He says most of the fires are under control and he believes "everything will be over soon".

"There were four fires that started simultaneously," he says.

"We have to wait for the investigation, but their [the fire department's] first unofficial assumption is that it was arson - fires can't start simultaneously in four different places.

"The situation in the island is better now. Most of the fires are under control. There are firefighting airplanes helping. I believe that everything will be over soon."

As promised, more from UK Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell.

Foreign Office advice on travel to Greece is being monitored hourly and will be updated if needed, Mitchell tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Asked if tour companies are doing enough to help people stuck in Greece, he says it appears they have been doing what they should be - including flying empty planes to Rhodes to get people out.

But he also says the advice that people should check with their travel operator or hotel before travelling is "absolutely correct" as it stands.

Mitchell emphasises that people should "stick close" to advice of their tour operator, holiday company, and the local experts and authorities in Greece.

Mitchell also says the wildfires are "undoubtedly a wake-up call" about the impacts of a warming planet, noting the many record temperatures being hit around the world in recent weeks.

"Climate change is real, it is now and it is essentially that the world combats it."

More from the Greek tourism minister, speaking to Radio 4.

"There has been no disruption in the airport and it’s particularly important to stress only a small part of the island of Rhodes is affected," Olga Kefalogianni says.

She says reports that 50% of the island is affected are incorrect, and the figure is between 10 and 20%.

Kefalogianni says people have been put up in conference centres and sports halls, as well as local homes - because hotels during the peak summer season do not have space. She understands the inconvenience for tourists that the evacuation has caused, but says "safety is top priority".

She adds: "Indeed it is the largest evacuation Greece has ever done and it happened in a matter of hours, but everyone is safe," she says.

Olga Kefalogianni, tourism minister for Greece, has been speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

She says the situation in Corfu is "not alarming" and nothing like the scenes seen on Rhodes.

"We had some evacuation from houses, but nothing like the evacuation that took place in Rhodes," she says.

Kefalogianni says people should continue to fly to Corfu as well as Rhodes. That's despite an earlier pronouncement from the government that Rhodes was the subject of the largest wildfire evacuation in Greek history.

Simon King
BBC weather presenter and meteorologist

On Sunday, the temperature peaked at 46.4C in Gythio - reported to be Greece’s joint fourth highest temperature on record.

Widely across Greece, red warnings are still in force as the heatwave continues with temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s (Celsius).

More problematic for firefighters are the moderate to strong north-westerly winds, especially around the southern portion of the Aegean sea around Rhodes. The highest gusts over the next couple of days will be 20-30mph which will continue to fan the fires and make them difficult to control.

Wind speeds on the island of Corfu won’t be as strong.

Weather conditions should start to improve from Wednesday, as the strong winds ease and temperatures come down to the low 30s.

Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has urged British tourists in Rhodes to "stick very close to your tour company, they know best what you should do".

“Stick to the tour operator and the local Greek services who will give the best possible advice," he told BBC Breakfast a short time ago.

Mitchell said there were between 7,000 and 10,000 British tourists on the island and emphasised the government would do everything it could to help. But he said whether the wildfires got worse "depends on the wind".

He said the government had deployed six Foreign Office officials and four staff from the British Red Cross to the airport in Rhodes - where they had so far received 20 requests for consular assistance.

Asked about a report that people were being evacuated from Corfu, Mitchell said he’d received an update one minute before coming on air (at around 07:40 BST) and there were “no evacuations from Corfu”.

"So I hope the situation is a little better and more stable than your reports suggests."

Mitchell is also due on BBC Radio 4's Today programme shortly - we'll let you know what he says.

Giorgos Mahimaris, the mayor of North Corfu, says the fire on the island is a result of arson - an assessment he made after visiting the three places it broke out on Mount Pantokratoras.

Residents and tourists who were evacuated for safety reasons were brought to the Agios Markos stadium and Municipal Theatre of Corfu, he told state news agency APA-MPA. No properties have been damaged.

Two helicopters and two fire-fighting planes are working on the front of the blaze, he adds in his statement.

Thousands of people are being evacuated off the Greek islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia.

Here are just some photos from the weekend:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters