ATHENS — Fast-moving wildfires near Athens have killed at least 76 people, officials said on Tuesday, and have forced thousands of tourists and residents to flee in cars and buses, on foot, aboard boats and on makeshift rafts. In desperation, some people plunged into the Aegean waters and tried to swim to safety.

Gale-force winds topping 50 miles an hour have fanned a pair of fires that tore through seaside areas popular with travelers, leaving behind a trail of charred resorts, burned-out cars and smoldering farms, and wrapping the region in a pall of smoke. Officials said that at least 187 people were injured, including 23 children.

Many evacuation routes were blocked, and people who managed to escape by road had to drive through choking smoke, sometimes with walls of flame leaping through trees just yards away.

At his home in Rafina, a port town, Vaios Kiriakis first smelled the fire late Monday afternoon, and by 8 p.m. he, his wife and their 12-year-old son had fled, taking only some money and waterproof jackets with them. They did not know whether they would ever see their house again.