Wildfires were burning in at least nine countries across the Mediterranean as blazes spread in Croatia and Portugal, with thousands of firefighters in Europe and north Africa working in extreme heat to contain flames stoked by high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.
High temperatures and parched ground sparked wildfires in countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, with at least 34 people 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.
Witnesses described fleeing walls of flames that raged “like a blowtorch”, destroying homes and coastal resorts, and turning vast forest areas into blackened wastelands.
The Algerian online news site TSA quoted the National Meteorological Office as saying that temperatures had soared to around 50C (122F) in some regions.
Among those killed were 10 soldiers trapped by flames at Beni Ksila, in Bejaia province, according to the defence ministry. The official APS news agency reported Monday night that 34 people had died across several regions, or “wilayas”.
Local media reflected anger about the latest deadly fires. The TSA news site asked, “in view of all these measures, why couldn’t we avoid the disaster?”
Fanned by strong winds, fires also forced the closure of two border crossings with neighbouring Tunisia, where fires have been especially fierce in the north-western Tabarka region.
More than 300 people were evacuated from the coastal village of Melloula by boat and overland and firefighters were still battling blazes on Tuesday in three areas in the north-west: Bizerte, Siliana and Beja. Firefighters struggled to extinguish flames destroying forests and citrus and hazelnut groves.
The official TAP news agency reported one death, a school principal who died of asphyxiation from a fire in Nafza, in the north-west.
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 both violent storms and wildfires. At least seven people were killed Italy on Tuesday after storms in the north and wildfires in Sicily.
Among those killed was a 16-year-old girl, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said. She died when a tree fell on her tent during a scout camp near Brescia, after high winds and torrential rain overnight.
Milan residents reported torrential rain and hail on Tuesday morning, which flooded streets and uprooted trees, many of which fell on to parked cars.
Even as the north was drenched, the heatwave across the south persisted, with temperatures of 47.6C (117F) recorded in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania on Monday. The bodies of two people in the 70s were found in a house destroyed by the flames, while an 88-year-old woman was found near the Sicilian city of Palermo, according to media reports.
Sicily’s regional president Renato Schifani said he planned to ask the government ahead of a Wednesday ministers’ meeting to declare a state of emergency for the island.
“We are experiencing in Italy one of the most complicated days in recent decades – rainstorms, tornadoes and giant hail in the north, and scorching heat and devastating fires in the centre and south,” said civil protection minister Nello Musumeci.
Writing on Facebook, he added: “The climate upheaval that has hit our country demands of us all … a change of attitude.”
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.
Close to 3,000 tourists had returned home by plane as of Tuesday, according to figures from the transport ministry, and tour operators have cancelled upcoming trips.
Two firefighting pilots died when their plane, which had been dropping water, crashed on a hillside close to the town of Karystos on the island of Evia, east of Athens.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “I will state the obvious: in the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hotspot, there is no magical defence mechanism, if there was we would have implemented it.”
In France, nearly 100 firefighters were using a helicopter to contain a wildfire in the municipalities of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Villeneuve-Loubet, close to Nice international airport, officials said on Tuesday.
The Bouches-du-Rhone department on Tuesday was placed under a “red alert”, with authorities seeing a “very high risk” of wildfires. More 300 firefighters were battling to contain fires near the city of Arles, police said.
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 Croatian 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.
Meanwhile a rapidly spreading wildfire at the centre of Spain’s island of Gran Canaria on Tuesday forced authorities to remove several hundred villagers, shut three roads and deploy firefighting helicopters.
Antonio Morales, head of the Island Council of Gran Canaria, said about 100 firefighters and nine aircraft were working to put out the blaze that has so far burned through 200 hectares of forest.
In Portugal, usually one of Europe’s 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.
The wildfire started in a mountainous area of the Sintra-Cascais park, which covers about 145 sq km (56 sq miles) west of Lisbon.
Backed by 189 vehicles, more than 600 firefighters were brought in after the fire erupted. Water-bombing planes also battled the blaze but had to stop operating as the night set in.
The mayor of Cascais, Carlos Carreiras, said gusts of up to 60km/h (37mph) were the biggest challenge, and that some people had been evacuated as a precaution.
Portugal is facing widespread drought, with 90% of the country affected.
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