ATHENS: Wildfires burned in regions across southern Europe on Monday, 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.
"I want to emphasise that August remains a difficult month," he said. "That is why it is important for all of us, all state services, to be on absolute alert until the firefighting period is formally over."
Fire service officials said negligence on farms and construction sites had been behind several incidents, many of which were in the southern Peloponnese region. No casualties were reported.
Conditions in southern Europe were in sharp contrast to the torrential rainstorms that lashed northern countries from Austria to Britain following the catastrophic flooding in Germany and neighbouring countries last week.
On the Italian island of Sardinia, firefighting planes from France and Greece reinforced local aircraft battling blazes across the island where more than 4,000 hectares of forest were burnt and more than 350 people evacuated.
In Sicily, fires broke out near the western town of Erice. In Spain, the northeastern region of Catalonia saw more than 1,500 hectares destroyed near Santa Coloma de Queralt, forcing dozens to be evacuated, although the blazes were 90 per cent stabilised on Monday, firefighters and authorities said.
In Lietor, in the central east region of Castilla-La Mancha, more than 2,500 hectares burned during the weekend before being brought under control, authorities said.
So far this year, wildfires have burned across 35,000 hectares in Spain, still some way off the 138,000 hectares burned in 2012, the worst year of the past decade.
Meanwhile, emergency services were still locked in battle with fires in the west of the Italian island of Sardinia on Monday.
In the province of Oristano, the fire brigade announced on Twitter that the operation was going on without a break. Sixty units are fighting the flames on the ground. In addition, five fire-fighting planes are in action.
Greece and France each sent two planes to help extinguish the flames, according to the Italian civil defence authority.
The flames have been burning in the western part of the island for a few days. Hundreds of people have had to leave their homes and thousands of hectares of land have burned so far, the ANSA news agency reported.
Strong winds contributed to the spread of the flames. It was "terrible," a woman from the area said. The air smelled burnt everywhere, fire and smoke could also be seen from the beach - even from popular tourist spots.
An operator of holiday flats in the town of Bosa said the burnt area resembled hell. Many farms were affected by the flames.
The Coldiretti agricultural association spoke of a "catastrophe" and considerable damage to agriculture. Pastures, forests and in some cases animals had been lost, it said.
In the early hours of Monday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed his solidarity with the people of Sardinia. Many politicians in Italy said they were horrified by the images from Sardinia on Twitter. - Reuters/dpa
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