ATHENS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The office of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Friday that the resignation of Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas has been accepted following the fatal fires in Attica on July 23.
The Prime Minister has accepted the resignation of Toskas and thanked him for the cooperation during the past years.
His duties will be passed on to Interior Minister Panos Skourletis, according to an e-mailed press statement.
Toskas repeated the offer to resign he made some days ago as the state of emergency that had been declared has expired, the prime minister's office announced.
"I must sincerely thank the Prime Minister for the confidence he has confided to me all this time when he has assigned me government duties. The natural disaster and losses of so many of our fellow human beings in Mati surpasses my will to continue, something I have said publicly from the very beginning," Toskas said in his first official statement, after his resignation.
He had come under heavy pressure to resign over the worst wildfires to hit Greece in decades.
A 35-year-old woman, mother of the six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation during the fires, passed away in the early hours of Friday morning, bringing the identified victims to 88.
She was the wife of a firefighter who participated in efforts to extinguish the massive blazes in eastern Attica.
The 35-year-old had run to the sea with her infant who died of toxic fumes in her arms.
