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Hot summer weather is spreading wildfires across Europe after a blaze reached France’s second-largest city and left 110 injured.
Marseille’s mayor lifted a confinement order for tens of thousands of people, announcing the brutal fire was in ‘regression’.
The blaze grounded all flights to and from Marseille and halted train traffic in most of the surrounding area on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire, which broke out near the town of Les Pennes-Mirabeau before racing towards Marseille.
It came on a cloudless, windy day after a lengthy heat wave around Europe left the area parched and at heightened risk for wildfires.
And it’s not just France being affected by the sweltering heat – the Global Wildfire Information System has shown many other European countries are at risk.
The wildfire in France forced Marseille Airport to close yesterday. The airport is open today, but flights are still affected.
British Airways, Ryanair, Air France and easyJet, which have a strong presence at the airport, were hit with widespread cancellations and delays.
Wildfires have broken out in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Albania, Serbia, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and across the rest of Europe.
In Greece, authorities closed the Acropolis for several hours on Tuesday over high temperatures and the risk of wildfires as temperatures exceeded 40C.
Yesterday in Spain, authorities forced residents to stay in their homes while firefighters tried to bring a blaze under control, but wind gusts of up to 55mph have halted efforts.
According to the EU science hub, 213,993 hectares of land in the European Union have burned in wildfires since the beginning of this year.
Destructive wildfires have already caused havoc in the Mediterranean this summer.
More than 1,500 people were evacuated from their homes and hotels on the Greek island of Crete last week.
Evacuations were ordered at three sites outside the port of Ierapetra on the island’s south coast while 230 firefighters battled the flames.
Elsewhere in Europe, extreme heat has been deadly. A ten-year-old American girl collapsed and died during a visit to the Palace of Versailles in France last week.
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