Nicola McCullen had to sleep on the street after arriving in Rhodes late on Saturday night
Scottish tourists have told how they have had to sleep on the street after wildfires spread across the Greek island of Rhodes.
One couple from Kilmarnock were forced to sleep outdoors on a mattress after their hotel was evacuated.
An Edinburgh family spent the night on a conference room floor, while others are searching for new accommodation.
Rhodes has been hit by wildfires fanned by strong winds since Tuesday as Europe deals with a challenging heatwave.
The deputy mayor of Rhodes, Athanasios Vyrinis, has warned that there are not enough essentials for visitors.
Reports now suggest about 19,000 people have been evacuated by land and sea.
Watch: Thousands evacuate as wildfires spread across Rhodes
A further 1,200 will be evacuated from three villages – Pefki, Lindos and Kalathos.
Tourists have been left in limbo after holiday company Jet2 cancelled all flights to and from Rhodes up to and including 30 July, while TUI cancelled all flights there until Wednesday.
Nicola McCullen, 46, from Kilmarnock, slept on a mattress in the street after arriving late on Saturday night on a TUI flight from Glasgow to Rhodes.
Ms McCullen’s partner had taken her away on holiday to celebrate her getting a new job.
She told the BBC she has now been taken to an evacuation centre but feels like she has been “dumped” and described TUI as “atrocious”.
Image source, Nicola McCullen
Nicola McCullen has now been moved to an evacuation centre but says the facilities are poor
She said: “I can’t thank the Greek locals enough. They’ve got enough to deal with. This is a big tragedy and they’ve looked after us very well.
“They’ve given us water and come over with fruit and food. But we’ve not had a proper meal.”
She added: “There are no washing facilities [at the evacuation centre] because the toilets are atrocious.
“It’s nearly three o’clock in the afternoon and we’ve spent the whole night up – I didn’t sleep because there are ants all over the place – and we still don’t know what’s happening to us.
“I’m sitting under a tree to get away from the sun because it’s so hot here. It’s not good – not good at all.”
‘We’ll be here until the fires stop’
Friends Madeleine Woods, Niamh Byrne, Kirsten Donaldson and Niamh Watt were warned to get out of the Lindos area and are now in an Airbnb in the north of Rhodes
Four friends from Glasgow told how the first time they realised the severity of the situation was when they saw people “fleeing” as their taxi drove up to a closed-off road near their accommodation in Lindos.
They were allowed to pass through but later received a text from the Greek government telling to get out of the area and head further north up the island.
Niamh Watt said: “We went along with hundreds of other tourists to a meeting point where there were buses to take us out of the area to a safe place.
“We got on the bus not knowing where we were going to and it took us to a hotel further up the coast where we spent the night in a conference room along with hundreds of other tourists.
“At this point we were told the hotel was shut for the night, so none of us had any idea of what the next step would be.”
Madeleine Woods added: “At that point we were relying on our own analysis of the situation because we weren’t given any sort of guidance from the local authorities or the government.
“So we decided to book an Airbnb in what seemed a safe spot. That’s where we are now and we’ll be here until the fires stop.”
‘They have tried to do the best they can’
Image source, Lesley Young
Lesley Young and her family were offered mattresses on the floor of a conference room
Lesley Young – who arrived in Lindos from Edinburgh on Saturday morning – said they could not go to their hotel because it had been evacuated.
Despite having holiday insurance worth £2,000 to use for alternative accommodation, Ms Young said she was initially unable to find anything.
“We were taken to the sister hotel of the one we booked and they have set up mattresses on the floor of one of their conference rooms.
“They have really tried to do the best they can.”
Ms Young, who is on holiday as a group of seven including three children and four adults, were later evacuated to the town of Faliraki.
She said they had a two-week holiday booked but was unsure if they would stay that long.
“Luckily we have our luggage,” she added.
Image source, Gregor Moir
Hotels are being evacuated across the island
Deputy mayor Mr Vyrinis said: “There is only water and some rudimentary food – we don’t have mattresses and beds.”
Speaking to Open TV from an assembly point, the deputy mayor said people were using cardboard boxes to sleep in and people arriving in Rhodes had nowhere to stay.
No injuries have been reported, according to the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece.
It said tourists are being evacuated safely from the affected areas – which represents less than 10% of the island’s tourist accommodation – and are being redirected to other hotels on the island.
