Family from Inverurie escapes Rhodes wildfires on rubber dinghy

Brodie and Eilidh flee the Rhodes wildfires on the dinghy

A Scottish family have told of their relief after being carried to safety in a dinghy from the Rhodes wildfires.

Emma and Bruce Farquhar from Inverurie were on holiday with their teenage daughters at the resort of Lardos.

Evacuations have been taking place after searing heat saw wildfires break out on Rhodes and other Greek islands.

The blazes remain "out of control" according to the island's deputy mayor - and the fires have forced 19,000 people to leave their homes.

After pushing their hotel to take action, Emma, Bruce, Brodie, 17, and Eilidh, 15, were eventually taken to safety to Pefkos along the coast.

• Rhodes rescue flights under way as fires continue

• Scots sleep on street as Rhodes wildfires spread

Emma said: "It was quickly spreading right across the front of the hill right beside where our hotel was.

"That's when it was like - this is quite frightening, this is quite scary we want to get away from here now."

Emma said the family fist noticed dark clouds and ash in the sky from the fires on Friday

The dinghies could only take six people at a time. The family waited on the beach as their luggage was taken first.

At Pefkos, locals helped the family to their taxi which took them to the airport through heavy traffic and road blockades.

Emma said: "It was chaos, there were buses everywhere, people with cases and bags obviously desperate to find a way to the airport."

The family is now back home safely in Aberdeenshire.

Emma said the hotel and holiday providers should have done more sooner, especially for their own staff.

She added: "Many are locals and they where there serving when they needed to be at home with their families

"It felt pretty awful when the waitress was talking about her father, mum, daughter and husband - where she hoped they were safe but had no way of knowing.

"You feel selfish, because really we should be helping them because they are losing their homes and livelihoods, but they were helping us get to the airport."

Brodie and mum Emma arrived back in Scotland early on Sunday morning

Corfu and Evia have become the latest islands to issue evacuation orders as the Greek government said it had launched the biggest rescue of its kind in response to the emergency.

No injuries have been reported yet as rescue flights begin to take holidaymakers back home.

Some Scottish tourists have told BBC Scotland they had to sleep on the streets after leaving their hotels.

And a couple from Glasgow on their honeymoon described their experience of being stuck on the island to "being thrown into a disaster film".

Daniel and Luna Rolfe from Glasgow are among up to 10,000 UK nationals thought to be on Rhodes.

Climate change

They were assured by their flight organiser TUI that it was safe to travel, but once they landed they were taken to an evacuation centre in a school and given mattresses to sleep on the floor.

Mr Rolfe said: "It's been quite sad and seeing my wife upset has been really difficult, but were getting through it."

Some airlines have organised rescue flights to take stranded tourists back but TUI said that their customers would have to wait to return on their original intended flights home.

A TUI spokesperson said: "We're now working hard to get everybody home safely with our first passengers returning to the UK on three dedicated flights overnight and plans in place to get everyone affected back as soon as possible."

A European heatwave has helped create dry conditions that let the fires take hold in Greece - and heatwaves are becoming hotter, longer and more frequent because of climate change.