Iberian Peninsula: Record temperatures across the Iberian peninsula have caused a wave of fires which have devastated at least 30,000 hectares of land in Spain and Portugal. Nine people have died from heat stroke in Spain and 12 from the fires in Portugal.
Three of the dead were firefighters, and a family of four were burned to death in their car near Castelo Branco as they tried to escape the flames. Hundreds more were forced to flee their homes.
The fires broke out in central Portugal early last week. They raged out of control, and 15 of the country's 18 administrative districts are now ablaze, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency.
"Fires seem to explode out of the earth," said Figueiredo Lopes, the Portuguese Interior Administration Minister.
Army units were called in to assist fire brigades and these have been joined by reinforcements from Germany, Italy and Morocco and Spain.
But almost immediately other fires broke out across the frontier in Spain and the Spanish fire-fighting planes and helicopters were forced to return to combat the flames at home. At least 11 fires have been reported in the past week. The most devastating blazes are still raging on three fronts in Extremadura, the region bordering Portugal, where hundreds were evacuated from their homes.
Thousands of farm animals are believed to have burned to death in the countryside, and it is estimated that some 20 per cent of Spain's battery hens have died from heat stress over the past three weeks causing the price of chickens to rise by almost 50 per cent in the markets. Some of the worst fires have been in the mountains and wooded areas which are the breeding grounds of many endangered species of birds and animals. It is feared that many of them have died.
The fires were made worse by the record heat wave which has swept the peninsula for the past two weeks, with temperatures in the high 40s, only falling a few degrees at night.
The rest of Europe was also caught up in the heat wave. Temperatures in the high 30s caused five deaths in the northern German town of Holzminden over the weekend.
In France, a spokeswoman for the state weather office said temperatures this week were expected to near the national record of 44 degrees Celsius, reached on August 8th, 1923.
In Britain, temperatures were threatening to top the all-time high of 37.1 degrees. The authorities in southern France have limited water use and there were fears of rising air pollution levels.
Many parts of Switzerland have banned fires for fear of forest fires amid dry conditions. Temperatures were forecast to hit 35 this week. - (Additional reporting Reuters)