Nikos Toskas

Interior Minister Panos Skourletis speaks during a handover ceremony in Athens on Saturday after being assigned the duties of Nikos Toskas, who resigned as alternate citizens' protection minister following a public outcry over the handling of the deadly wildfires that ravaged eastern Attica on July 23.

Eleven days after the catastrophic fires that ravaged coastal areas of Attica, killing at least 88 people and razing large tracts of forestland, Alternate Minister for Citizens' Protection Nikos Toskas submitted his resignation for a second time to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who this time accepted it. 

The office of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday that it has accepted the resignation of Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas over last week's fatal fires in Attica.

Toskas repeated the offer to resign he made last week as the state of emergency that had been declared has expired, the premier's office said. 

With criticism mounting against the government over its response, or lack thereof, to last week's devastating wildfire, Citizens' Protection Minister Nikos Toskas insisted that "no operational mistakes were made."

Frantic relatives headed to the Athens morgue Thursday to seek the fate of loved ones still missing after Greeces deadliest forest fire in decades, a blaze that Greek authorities said they increasingly suspect resulted from arson.

Greece's Defense Council has dispatched specially trained members of the armed forces and National Guard to bolster fire-prevention patrols by civil protection authorities, as the country struggles to contain several wildfires, and particularly that of east Attica, which has claimed at least 50 lives so far.

Citizens' Protection Minister Nikos Toskas vowed on Wednesday to bolster security in the central Athens district of Exarchia, following the most recent attack on police by self-styled anarchists and growing frustration from residents in the area over rising violence and crime.

Claims by the main opposition that the government lets anarchist group Rouvikonas operate with impunity is just "hot air," Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas said on Monday, responding to New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis claimed that the group enjoys the protection of the government and that its actions are considered normal by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The main conservative opposition party New Democracy on Monday hit out at the leftist-led government over recent violent attacks against police officers in Athens and Thessaloniki.

"The situation with violence and lawlessness has spiraled out of control," ND said in a statement.

A water-dropping helicopter is seen performing a test as a group of firemen supervise the operation during a wildfire drill on Mount Pendeli, north of Athens, ahead of the country's forest fire season, Tuesday.