GREEK police yesterday arrested a 65-year-old man and charged him with arson and multiple murder as fires raged across the country, killing 46 people since Friday. Among the dead were holidaymakers and a mother and child whose charred bodies were found locked in a final embrace.

“I can see the burnt bodies of a mother holding her child in her arms,” one witness told Greek television. “Further away there are more bodies. It is terrible.”

The inferno of 170 fires was also sparked by a heatwave in which temperatures climbed above 40C, fuelled by 50mph winds that also prevented some firefighting planes from taking off. About 500 soldiers with 18 helicopters and 19 planes eventually joined firemen on the ground in attempts to bring the flames under control.

Hundreds of people were trapped by walls of flame, many in mountainous villages in the western Peloponnese. A mother and her four children were among those killed after being engulfed by flames on the road near the village of Makistos.

A monastery was evacuated on the edge of Athens and the road to the country’s main air-port was closed. Fires broke out around the suburb of Papagou, with clouds of thick black smoke blotting out the midday sun.

Costas Karamanlis, the Greek prime minister, declared a state of emergency. “We are living through an unspeakable tragedy today,” he said after visiting Zaharo, one of the worst affected towns.

Karamanlis, who faces an early general election in three weeks’ time, was under pressure over claims that his government had done too little, too late.

People watched in horror from their sitting rooms as residents of remote communities called television stations, pleading for help. A woman in the village of Rodina, near Zaharo, said about 20 people, including children, were trapped. “We can see the fire in front of us,” she said. “It’s at our feet. We’re choking.”

Four holidaymakers, including two French tourists, were reported to be among the dead in the Mani peninsula of the southern Peloponnese.

Georgie Stewart, a British holidaymaker, described fleeing from the fast-moving flames.

“We suddenly saw the smoke coming from a hill about two miles from our house,” she said. “And then we left when the fire was probably about 500 metres from our house.

“Down the mountain were scenes of absolute chaos. We saw relatives trying to get to their aged relatives up in the hills to get them down – people on motorbikes carrying grannies. It was scenes of panic and chaos.”

With the death toll expected to rise, the Greek government appealed to European Union countries to “send any help they can”. France said it was deploying two water-dropping planes and Germany offered three helicopters.

The fire department said police were investigating several cases of suspected arson.

Additional reporting: Nicola Smith

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