Fears are growing among Oxford's Greek community for the safety of their loved ones amid the forest fires raging through Greece which have left 63 people dead.

Safety fears have been heightened after the fire-ravaged south of the country also suffered a strong earthquake.

The quake, which had a magnitude of five, was centred on an area near Ancient Olympia.

Manos Vernicos, who lives in Woodstock and runs Greek deli Manos Fresh Foods in Walton Street, Oxford, returned from Mania on the Peloponnesecor on Friday.

His 74-year-old aunt, Irie Vernicos, lives on one of the worst-affected islands, Evia, and he has not been able to contact her since his return.

Mr Vernicos said: "No one can get hold of her. I am hoping she has been taken away from the village.

"The island wasn't touched when we were there. It was fine at that time. Now half the island is burned.

"I spoke to her on Thursday. I came back on Friday morning, then on Saturday and Sunday, we heard the fires had kicked off again. We haven't been able to speak to her since."

Mr Vernicos and his fiancée Marcsi Dienes left before the worst of the fires, but saw fires raging through mountains near Sparta.

He said: "I saw lots of smoke everywhere, and there were aeroplanes that dropped water on to the fires and huge plumes of thick grey smoke came up. Some of the fires have now spread to where we were, so we are fortunate to have left in time."

Oxford's Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity and the Annunciation, in Canterbury Road, held special prayers for people affected by the disaster at its service on Sunday and more prayers will be said during Friday's service.

The minister, Father Ian Graham, said: "A number of the people who worship regularly here have family connections in those areas.

"They are obviously all very shocked - and they are still more shocked by stories that these fires are being started deliberately."

He said there was little they could do, except offer prayers.

"We will be keeping in touch to see what we can do to provide relief as and when that becomes apparent."

Nikitas Gidopoulos, president of the Greek Orthodox Community, said: "Everybody is devastated. We have never seen anything like this before.

"We have fires in Greece quite often but nothing on this scale.

"We are hearing from people who say that when they go outside, everything is dark and they find ash everywhere."