Firefighters from Germany and five other European countries are to be stationed this summer to fight forest fires in Greece. The aid program is part of the new EU policy to contain the forest fires in southern Europe and is funded by the EU, Greek state television reported on Friday.

The firefighters are to be stationed in Athens, on the Peloponnese peninsula near Tripoli and in central Greece near Larisa.

Firefighters from Bulgaria, Romania, France, Finland and Norway are also expected. In addition, around 90 fire-fighting helicopters and fire-fighting aircraft are to be deployed in Greece this year to fight the flames.

The military will patrol to locate fires in time. This was decided the evening before at a meeting in the Ministry of Civil Protection chaired by the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek state broadcaster reported on Friday.