A father’s agonising ordeal grasped the attention of the entire nation last Monday, during the harrowing fires in Attiki Greece.

A missing persons alert was shared around the country as young father Yiannis Philipopoulos thought he had seen his daughters in a TV newscast (pictured below).

Philipopoulos and his wife, had reportedly spotted the two girls in videos aired on SKAI and Alpha channels showing them boarding a fishing boat along several other survivors.

Screengrab of the two girls Philipopoulos mistook for his daughters as they appeared on TV.

The last time the couple saw their little girls Vasiliki and Sofia, they were enjoying school holidays in their grandparents’ care.

Philip, 74 and Sofia, 61, had also been reported missing.

The search for the Philipopoulos twins went viral and even spread abroad. It became both a story of hope and fear for their safety.

In the meantime the father had provided authorities with DNA samples to help them identify the missing girls and their grandparents.

The tragic grandparents who also perished in the Mati fires.

After a nationwide search it was discovered that the two girls in the video were someone else’s daughters and had been reunited with their family.

In a tragic turn of events, a Facebook post by relative Angelo Kontos came to end the saga:

“The epilogue has been written. All 4 found hugging each other. Not even death could tear them apart,” Mr Kontos wrote.

Yiannis Philipopoulos had been searching for his daughters since the fires broke out on Monday. Photo: iefimerida.gr

Many more have taken to social media to share photos of their loved-ones as the death toll rises and several people remain missing or unidentified. At this point, little hope remains with officials advising it is highly unlikely there will be any survivors found in the area afflicted by the fire.