Cyprus stands “ready to assist” Greece in its fight against wildfires which are continuing to rage in the west of the Attica region, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday, after two firefighting helicopters collided with one another attempting to tackle the blaze on Sunday.

“We are observing the devastation which is being wrought in various regions of Greece due to the deadly fires of recent days with pain. We join in mourning for the loss of human lives and our thoughts are with our Greek brothers who are suffering,” he said.

He added that the Cypriot government, through national civil protection coordinator Nikos Longinos, is “in constant communication with the Greek government”, and stands “ready to assist in the firefighting operation” should it be called upon.

The two helicopters had collided on Sunday afternoon near the coastal town of Psatha, which is located around 65 kilometres west of Athens, with a Danish pilot and a Greek fire brigade liaison officer dying as one of the helicopters burst into flames and fell into a ravine.

While damaged, the second helicopter was able to perform an emergency landing, and its British pilot and Greek co-coordinator survived.

As of Monday morning, fires were still burning near the village of Ayios Nektarios, which is located east of Psatha, while people as far eastwards as the town of Nea Peramos, which sits on the Gulf of Elefsina, were sent emergency alerts ordering them to evacuate.

The Greek police said an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the helicopter crash was underway, and that the crash site had been secured.

The fires are being exacerbated by windspeeds reaching as high as 100 kilometres per hour, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis having warned on Sunday that those high winds could ground the country’s aerial firefighting fleet.

“When the winds blow with such force, even the dozens of aircraft we have at our disposal cannot operate safely. There are moments when nature and the intensity of weather phenomena surpass any human planning and any operational capability,” he said.

As such, he warned of “extremely difficult” days ahead.

He also offered his condolences to the families of the two who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash, saying that the incident “fills us all with pain”.

On Monday, Greek newspaper Naftemporiki reported that over 110,000 acres had been burnt in western Attica, while former Greek prime minister George Papandreou called for more to be done to prepare Greece to better deal with future wildfires.

“Emotion is not enough. When the same tragedies are repeated, the responsibility for them is primarily political. The climate crisis is a reality, but it cannot be used as an alibi. It requires a state which prevents, plans, and coordinates effectively, not piecemeal responses,” he said.

He added that “the lack of contingency planning today is costing the country”, and that “the degradation of prevention, the shortages of resources and personnel, and the absence of strategy are political choices with consequences”.

“We owe the people a state which will not simply manage disasters, but prevent them,” he said.