Service attended by friends and relatives
ADVERTISEMENTPain was etched on the faces of the congregation on Sunday, at a memorial service in Mati for the 88 victims of the wildfires that struck the Greek village last Monday.
Friends and relatives attended the service at the Assumption of Mary chapel, just a few hundred meters from where the tragedy unfolded.
Hundreds of people came here to pay homage those who died, said Euronews’s correspondent. This church is one of the very few buildings in the area that was left unharmed by the fire.
"Let God rest their souls,” says this churchgoer. “Their death was horrid. Let God rest their souls."
"It's a tragedy, when you have people getting burnt in the sea,” says another. “Even the pebbles, the pebbles on the beach were burnt. Who could imagine it?"
On the beach is a memorial to a six month old baby who drowned at sea. A letter from his parents contains a promise to return each year to the spot.
The baby boy’s father was a firefighter who was called to help tackle the blaze.