At least 3 dead and thousands evacuated as wildfires rage across southern Europe
At least three people have been killed as wildfires continue to burn across southern Europe.
Outside the Greek port city of Patras, firefighters struggled to protect homes and agricultural facilities as flames tore through olive groves.
Firefighting resources were stretched thin in many affected countries as they battled multiple outbreaks following weeks of heat waves and temperature spikes across Mediterranean Europe.
Fires blazed on the Greek mainland, the Patras area and on the island of Zakynthos. Greece also sent assistance to neighbouring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of wildfires. An 80-year-old man died in a blaze south of the capital, Tirana, officials said on Wednesday.
Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition depot. In the southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried Second World War-era artillery shells.
A firefighting volunteer in the hard-hit Castile and León region north of Madrid, where thousands have been displaced by evacuations, died fighting the blaze.
The government raised its national emergency response level, preparing additional support for regional authorities overseeing multiple evacuations and highway closures.
A forestry worker was also killed on Wednesday while responding to a wildfire in southern Turkey, officials said. The Forestry Ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire engine that left four others injured.
Turkey has been battling severe wildfires since late June. A total of 18 people have been killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July.
Scientists have warned that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness across the South of Europe.
The continent is warming up faster than any other in the world.
Temperatures have increased at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Services.
Last year was the hottest on record, both globally and in Europe, according to the monitoring agency.
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