Rhodes fires: Attleborough dad tells of tourist rescue runs

Jonathan Lewis said he refused to accept any money offered to him by the people he rescued

A man from Norfolk has described rescuing eight "car loads" of tourists during wildfires in Greece.

Jonathan Lewis, a freight manager from Attleborough, said the scenes near Lindos in Rhodes were like "the end of the world" and "hell on Earth".

The 62-year-old was on holiday with his wife and daughter when he decided to drive towards the affected hotels in a hire car.

Thousands have been affected over the last week.

Wind coupled with very dry conditions and high temperatures meant wildfires spread across the island

Mr Lewis said he rescued eight car loads of people from hotels affected by the fires

"It was quite horrific really, how there hasn't been, as of yet, any loss of life - I find it unbelievable because what I drove into was hell on earth, it was horrific," said Mr Lewis.

He left his resort in the hire car on Wednesday and drove towards an affected area.

Officials estimate 19,000 have been evacuated by land and sea with more people due to be evacuated from three villages - Pefki, Lindos, Kalathos

He added: "It was like the end of the world, it was incredible.

"There were people running down roads, you can't believe [that] literally, over a hill, everything [had] changed, from everyone having a fantastic holiday blissfully unaware of what was going on just half a mile away."

He said he persuaded a police officer to let him drive past a cordon, claiming he was collecting his wife.

Mr Lewis said he shuttled eight car loads of adults and children - up to seven at a time - away to safety.

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"I just kept going backwards and forwards until the last of the people were taken away by either myself, buses, or the army who eventually came, and that's when some organisation came into it," he recalled.

Mr Lewis's wife found the family a new hotel room on Sunday night and their flight home was scheduled for 23:00 local time on Monday.

Other people have been sleeping in disused schools, sports halls, airports and on the streets.

Two EasyJet and three Jet2 repatriation flights from Rhodes to the UK were planned for Monday.

"My wife and kids thought I was sneaking off to a pub so I made a video just to prove what I was doing," Mr Lewis told the BBC.

"I don't know if I was saving their lives - I was getting them out of a very stressful situation."