BBC News website reader Viv Reeves took pictures before the fire spread

Many say they were shocked by the speed in which flames spread across large parts of the Halkidiki peninsula, close to several resorts.

Viv Reeves, from Kent, who is on holiday in Hanioti, had been watching and taking pictures of planes dropping water bombs on the forest fires on Monday evening.

But within half an hour, she said, the wind had changed direction and, with the fire apparently heading her way, she ran to the beach with others.

The fire was "going mad" and was "very hot and smoky," she said.

Many people were suffering from sore throats with no water to drink.

Elaine Willan, a nurse from Rainham in Kent, also said the rapid spread of the fire had shocked her and her family.

"We'd gone to order a meal and we were waiting for our meal to be cooked.

"The sky went quite dark and we thought there was a storm brewing.

"We'd already had a couple of sheets of lightning and we thought it was the storm that was darkening the sky but somebody said that there was a fire.

There were people walking around obviously quite upset because they couldn't find relatives David Butson

"Then we decided that we would move along the beach, which we did, but it was getting quite crowded and people were being turned back because they'd gone as far as they could go, there was nowhere else to go."

David Butson, who was holidaying with his family, said the dark sky caused by the fire had made the evacuation difficult.

He also complained about the apparent lack of organisation.

"There were people walking around obviously quite upset because they couldn't find relatives.

"It was pitch black there was no light at all, so everybody - all the British and all the Greeks - got together and everybody just waited for instructions which didn't really come

"When the fire started to disappear then we made our way back in, on our own steam."

'So hot'

Although they had eventually managed to get back into their hotel on Monday night, Mr Butson said he and his family had been frightened by the experience.

Lindsey Jones said she and her boyfriend had a lucky escape

"The flames were half a mile away from us but they looked so hot.

"When the fires started dying out the ash started coming down so we had to get inside the lobby of the hotel to get out of the smoke and ash."

Lyndsey Jones and her boyfriend, Craig Shakespeare, on holiday in Hanioti, also returned to their hotel on Monday night.

Ms Jones said they had been lucky their hotel had not been burnt down.

"This morning when we got up there's ash everywhere, it's just a big cloud of ash," she said.

"It's amazing how close it got to the hotel.

"It's just round the borders, literally round the borders of the hotel and the parasols round the pool are all burned.