ATHENS, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The official death toll has risen to 52 in the unprecedented forest fires that have swept through the southern Peloponnese peninsula since Thursday.

Four separate wildfire fronts continued to rage in southern Greece Sunday morning, fanned by gale-force winds and heat, and amid widespread speculation of arson.


Burnt houses stud the village of Makinos, in the Zacharo area of Peloponnese. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

The most threatening blazes were centered in the southwest Peloponnese, the worse-hit area so far.

Dozens of people, mostly in the southern Peloponnese, were hospitalized, the authorities said, adding that an undetermined number of people remain unaccounted for, and that they feared an even higher death toll.

Thousands of hectares of crops, pasture land and forests were scorched.

Fire-fighters looked to weaker winds and assistance from a half dozen neighboring and west European countries -- in the form of fire-fighting aircraft -- as allies Sunday in the battle to contain the flames.

In the wake of the unprecedented natural catastrophe, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis Saturday evening declared a nationwide state of emergency and promised hefty financial assistance for fire-ravaged victims and regions.

In expressing his personal "grief and rage" over the wildfires, Karamanlis said, "I am angered, as are all Greeks, by the fact that so many wildfires occurred in so many different parts. This is not a coincidence."