‘There is no magical defence mechanism,’ says Greek prime minister as fires burn in northern Africa and southern Europe.
Wildfires were burning in at least nine countries across the Mediterranean as blazes spread in Croatia, Italy and Portugal, with thousands of firefighters in Europe and north Africa working to contain flames stoked by high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.
Wildfires were burning in at least nine countries across the Mediterranean as blazes spread in Croatia, Italy and Portugal, with thousands of firefighters in Europe and north Africa working to contain flames stoked by high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.
At least 34 people were killed in Algeria, where 8,000 firefighters on Tuesday battled blazes across the tinder-dry north. Fires burned in a total of 15 provinces, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people from their properties.
Witnesses described fleeing walls of flames that raged “like a blowtorch”, destroying homes and coastal resorts and turning vast forest areas into blackened wastelands...
Wildfires also broke out in the woodlands of Latakia, a governorate on the Mediterranean in north-western Syria. “Firefighting teams are working to put out the massive wildfires that have broken out in the woods of Latakia northern countryside which are still uncontrolled until now,” the North Press Agency reported firefighters as saying on Tuesday, with helicopters used to extinguish fires.
Italy has been hit by violent storms and wildfires. At least seven people were killed on Tuesday after storms in the north and wildfires in Sicily....
Greece has also been particularly hard hit this summer, with authorities evacuating more than 20,000 people in recent days from homes and resorts in the south of the holiday island of Rhodes....
In Croatia, winds were so strong that firefighting aircraft could not take off, local media reported. Firefighters battled wildfires that were spreading just south of the Adriatic city of Dubrovnik, a tourism destination, late on Tuesday...
Winds brought disaster to neighbouring Montenegro, where two people drowned and several were injured when strong southern winds hit the coast, port authorities in the towns of Ulcinj and Petrovac said.
A rapidly spreading wildfire at the centre of Spain’s island of Gran Canaria on Tuesday prompted authorities to remove several hundred villagers, shut three roads and deploy firefighting helicopters....
In Portugal, usually one of the European countries worst hit by wildfires, according to EU data, hundreds of Portuguese firefighters scrambled on Tuesday to put out flames near the popular holiday destination of Cascais, with strong winds complicating efforts....
In Turkey, a hospital and a dozen homes were evacuated as a precaution in the coastal town of Kemer, where firefighters for a third day battled a blaze raging through a woodland. At least 10 planes, 22 helicopters and hundreds of firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire as meteorologists warned temperatures could rise several degrees above seasonal averages.
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