A wildfire is burning just outside of Athens with hundreds of firefighters trying to bring the blaze under control.

More than 400 firefighters, 110 fire engines and a large number of volunteers are fighting the blaze, which broke out around 3pm local time on Sunday about 22 miles from the Greek capital.

Fifteen firefighting planes and nine helicopters were also involved in the operation.

Fire colonel Vassileios Vathrakogiannis said the flames were moving fast towards Lake Marathon, an important reservoir supplying Athens.

An unknown number of houses have been damaged.

Mr Vathrakogiannis said winds reached gale force strength in the area of the fire and flames exceeded 80ft in height.

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Residents of the villages near the area of the fire have been warned by emergency text messaging to evacuate.

On Sunday afternoon, messages were also sent to residents of some northern Athens suburbs to do the same.

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Another fire that broke out to the west of Athens has been contained, the spokesman said.

Both meteorologists and government officials have warned of the heightened danger of wildfires because of weather conditions from Sunday until Thursday.

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