A Greek minister has confirmed that a fire which destroyed the country’s largest migrant camp was started by migrants amid protests by asylum seekers who had tested positive for coronavirus and were refusing to go into isolation.   

The Moria camp, home to 12,000 refugees on the island of Lesbos, was completely destroyed by a blaze which began in the early hours of Wednesday.  A second fire struck again tonight in the notoriously overcrowded refugee camp.  

France recorded almost 10,000 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, its highest ever total in a single day. The country reported 9,843 new confirmed cases, an increase of almost 900 on the previous day, as the government prepares to decide on new lockdown measures tomorrow.

Greece has reported 372 new cases of the coronavirus, its highest daily figure since the pandemic began, bringing its total caseload to 12,452. Another four deaths were registered, taking the toll to 297.

“At the moment we would respectfully submit we have to go ahead on the assumption that she has Covid,” Edward Fitzgerald, Mr Assange’s lawyer said.

“If that is the correct assumption … we shouldn’t really be here. Covid would be here in the courtroom and it’s not possible to tell how far it’s extended.”

Hugo Gutierrez, security minister and head of the police in eastern Veracruz state, condemned the “cowardly murder” of the reporter.

“In co-ordination with the state attorney general’s office we will exhaust all resources to find those responsible,” he said in a statement.

“The school is gone, the fire department’s gone, the bar’s gone, the laundromat’s gone, the general store’s gone,” he told The Sacramento Bee. “I’m leaving. I never want to see California again.”

Berry Creek was swallowed up by the Bear Fire, part of a cluster of wildfires that forced the evacuation of 20,000 people in three counties and was approaching the town of Paradise, which suffered the deadliest fire in California’s history two years ago.