Firefighters battled on Monday to put out wildfires in three provinces in Türkiye, in Greece and near a tourist resort in Albania, stoked by strong winds after days of searing heat across the Mediterranean region.
Smoke billowed over the mountainous Black Sea province of Karabuk, 200km north of the capital Ankara, as a wildfire which raged for a sixth day forced the evacuation of more than a dozen villages and burnt swathes of forests.
In the northwestern province of Bursa, three firefighters were killed on Sunday when their vehicle crashed, Türkiyes forestry ministry said on Monday. Crews fought two separate blazes there on Monday after the evacuation of more than 3,600 people from settlements in the southern provinces of Mersin and Antalya.
Türkiye has suffered dozens of wildfires in recent weeks as temperatures have soared, and 10 firefighters were killed last week battling a blaze in the central Eskisehir province.
Hot and dry summers are common in the Mediterranean region, but more intense heatwaves have contributed to destructive wildfires in recent years amid fast-rising temperatures across the globe.
At least 44 wildfires broke out in Greece in the past 24-hours, the fire brigade said on Monday afternoon.
On the southern Greek island of Kythera, strong winds rekindled a blaze burning since Saturday. In Athens, firefighters quickly contained a fire that broke out at the foot of Mount Hymettus, near a university campus and densely populated suburbs.
In Albania, more than 900 firefighters assisted by the army battled to control a wildfire before it reached the seaside city of Saranda and other tourist resorts in the south of the country on the Ionian coast.
At least 13 people have been arrested for arson-related offences in the past three days, police said.
Bulgaria, assisted by several European countries, deployed firefighting planes to help tame a large wildfire near the Bulgarian-Turkish border.
So far the flames have scorched about 16,000 acres. Two people have been detained by authorities investigating the cause of the fires, according to local media.
Over the weekend, several villages in Greece were evacuated and five people were injured in separate wildfires.
As Greece saw off its third summer heatwave on Monday, rainy weather in Serbia helped firefighters there bring more than 100 wildfires under control.
Reuters
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