According to preliminary assessments, those who died may have been migrants. A coroner and an investigation team are on their way to the Dadia woodland.

Fires have scorched the Evros region of north-eastern Greece, close to the Turkish border.

The hospital in Alexandroupolis had to be evacuated.

Patients carried overnight to a boat berthed at the port included newborn newborns and intensive care patients.

An earlier death, also thought to be that of a migrant, had been recorded in a village near the coastal city, and emergency services had sent mobile text messages to the nearby areas requesting that people leave.

The Dadia national park, located to the north of Alexandroupolis, is a big woodland area where fires are said to have spread swiftly since Monday.

According to accounts, the 18 dead were discovered on Tuesday outside a hut outside the village of Avantas while the fire department was inspecting the burned remnants of a building.

Given that there had been no reports of missing residents, fire service spokesperson Yiannis Artopios said the likelihood that the victims had entered Greece illegally was being explored.

The Evros region has become one of the most frequent crossing points for Syrian and Asian migrants from Turkey into the European Union. The Dadia woodland is also known to be a popular migration path.

The representative for the fire department emphasized that emergency warnings had been issued to all mobile phones in the vicinity, including overseas networks.

Fires are raging in other parts of Greece, whipped up by high winds and temperatures expected to exceed 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.