ATHENS: A woman has died in hospital taking the death toll from Greece’s worst wildfires to 88, many of them children, officials said Saturday.
The unnamed woman in her 40’s had been in hospital since fire ravaged the seaside village of Mati, east of the capital Athens, on Monday.
The Health Ministry said a dozen other people remained in hospital with serious injuries.
Forensics experts have faced a difficult task trying to identify the bodies of those who perished, many completely charred.
A private detective employed by one family which lost three children and their grandparents told reporters Friday night that nine year-old twins Sophia and Vassiliki had been identified.
They were found wrapped in the embrace of their grandparents among 26 bodies outside a villa near the sea at Mati.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Friday he assumed “political responsibility” for the tragedy as a bitter debate raged over who was to blame.
The opposition earlier accused the government of refusing to take responsibility after it said arson was suspected.
Officials citing information from satellite maps have said that 13 fires broke out Monday at the same time across the Attica region.
At a cabinet meeting broadcast live, Tsipras said he wanted “to assume completely before the great Greek people the political responsibility for this tragedy.”
“I believe that is what the prime minister and the government should do,” he added.
The government has come in for strong criticism over its response to the disaster despite a 40-million-euro relief fund.
Experts have said that a mix of poor urban planning, including a lack of proper access routes and the construction of too many buildings next to combustible forest areas, contributed to what were Europe’s worst wildfires this century.
The fires struck coastal villages popular with holidaymakers and burned with such ferocity that most people fled to the safety of the sea with just the clothes on their backs.
Death toll climbs to 88 from Greek wildfires
Death toll climbs to 88 from Greek wildfires
- A woman has died in hospital taking the death toll from Greece’s worst wildfires to 88
- The Health Ministry said a dozen other people remained in hospital with serious injuries
Four migrants die in US immigration custody over first 10 days of 2026
- Trump administration increases migrant detentions, aims for more deportations
- DHS says death rate aligns with historic norms amid rising detentions
WASHINGTON: Four migrants died while in custody of US immigration authorities over the first 10 days of 2026, according to government press releases, a loss of life that followed record detention deaths last year under President Donald Trump.
The deaths included two migrants from Honduras, one from Cuba and another from Cambodia, and occurred from January 3-9, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration aims to ramp up deportations and has increased the number of migrants in detention. As of January 7, ICE statistics showed that the agency was detaining 69,000 people. The numbers were expected to rise following a massive ICE funding infusion passed by the US Congress last year. At least 30 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the highest level in two decades, agency figures showed.
Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network, called the high number of deaths “truly staggering” and urged the administration to shutter detention centers.
US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the rate of deaths had remained in step with historic norms as the detention population has climbed. “As bed space has expanded, we have maintained higher standard of care than most prisons that hold US citizens — including providing access to proper medical care,” McLaughlin said.
The Cuban detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died on January 3 in Camp East Montana, a detention site opened by the Trump administration on the grounds of Fort Bliss in Texas. ICE said it was investigating the death of Lunas, adding that officials said he had become disruptive and placed him in isolation. Officials later found him in distress, and emergency medical technicians pronounced him dead, ICE said.
The two Honduran men — Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, 42, and Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz, 68 — died in area hospitals in Houston and Indio, California, on January 5 and 6, respectively, both following heart-related issues, ICE said.
Parady La, a Cambodian man, 46, died on January 9 following severe drug withdrawal symptoms at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, ICE said. The administration began using that space last year, it said. The Trump administration has greatly reduced the number of migrants released from detention on humanitarian grounds, a move critics say has driven some to accept deportation. In addition to the in-custody deaths, an ICE officer fatally shot a Minnesota mother of three last week, an incident that sparked protests in Minneapolis and cities around the country.
