Southern Europe battles wildfires as north cleans up after floods

France, Greece send aircraft to tackle Italy fires.

Wildfires burned in regions across southern Europe on July 26, fuelled by hot weather and strong winds, as some northern countries cleaned up after a weekend of torrential rain and flooding. In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said firefighters had battled around 50 fires during the past 24 hours and it was likely there would be more with meteorologists warning that a further heatwave was in prospect. On the Italian island of Sardinia, firefighting planes from France and Greece reinforced efforts to battle blazes. More than 4,000 hectares of forest were destroyed in the fire.