Wildfires have raged across southern Europe with firefighters battling to protect lives, homes and livelihoods from savage flames. Scores of people have been killed, including in Turkey where severe wildfires have claimed at least 18 lives. Crews worked through the night on Tuesday to protect Greece‘s third largest city, Patras, where fires tore through olive groves.
Desperate locals joined efforts to beat back the flames, using cut down branches and buckets of water as planes and helicopters dropped water overhead. The size and scale of the blazes have stretched firefighting resources thin in many of the countries, which have seen heat waves lasting weeks and record temperatures. The south of France saw a high of 43C on Tuesday.
Aircraft had to rotate between blazes on the western Greek mainland, the Patras area and the island of Zante, where high winds fanned the flames. Greece sent help to neighbouring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of wildfires.