Much of southern Europe was sweltering under a record-breaking heatwave which has sent people scrambling for shelter and firefighter into action to put out hundreds of fires erupting in forests and the underbrush.
In the Balkans, the temperature topped 40° Celsius across the region, spurring the authorities in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia to issue a red meteorological alert already in the middle of the week.
Forest and brush fires were burning in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Albania.
In Bulgaria, nearly 200 mostly minor fires were put out over the previous 24 hours, novinite.com said.
In Croatia, the power grid was straining amid record consumption due to air-conditioners blasting across the country.
Montenegrin meteorologists also reported temperatures of up to 42°C.
Greece, which itself had to fight dozens of fires, some of them set deliberately, has sent two firefighting aircraft to neighbouring Albania to help it contain a blaze in tough terrain.
In Bosnia, the weather warning was on for the fourth day as temperature rose to 42°C in some places.
In Serbia’s capital Belgrade, where it was 39°C in the shade at noon, the emergency medical services had intervened more than 30 times by that time.
The extremely hot weather in the region is expected to linger at least through the weekend, before a brief respite at the start of the next week and another heatwave shortly after that, meteorologists warned.
In nearby Austria, inner city Vienna recorded a temperature of 38.9°C on Thursday, 0.6° off the record set four years ago.
It was similar to the west in the Mediterranean basin, in Italy, France and Spain, with the heat and fires recurring since June.
In Italy authorities urged people to remain at home and avoid venturing outside.
The health ministry issued yesterday the highest alert for cities, including Rome, Venice and Florence.
It was hottest in the Naples area, with 50°C-plus temperatures, meteorologists said.
Due to the temperature and weeks of drought, forest fires steadily broke out.
France recorded its hottest ever night-time temperature during Monday night at Marignana in Corsica, with the mercury going no lower than 30.5°C.
At least four locations in the southeast and Corsica have already registered record highs for the month of August, according to Meteo France. The combination of high temperatures and strong winds has led to repeated outbreaks of forest fires in southern France and Corsica.
Though Spain has hot summers, the situation has recently been beyond the usual in 16 of the 50 Spanish provinces, a second-degree alert is in effect due to temperatures of up to 42°C.