Heatwave causes wildfire in France, kills 3 in Italy
PARIS: Hundreds of firefighters battled to contain wildfires in southern France yesterday as a stifling heatwave brought recordbreaking temperatures to parts of Europe, killing three people in Italy.
In the Gard region, where France’s highest temperature on record was registered on Friday at 45.9°C, fire burned some 600 hectares of land and destroyed houses and vehicles.
More than 700 firefighters and 10 aircraft were mobilised to tackle the fires in the Gard, which caused sections of motorways to be temporarily closed.
Several firefighters were hurt but no serious injuries were reported.
Local media said a man had been arrested for deliberately starting fires in one Gard village.
Meanwhile, Britain could see its hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures expected to reach up to 35°C, according to the Met Office.
For a fourth consecutive day, unusually high temperatures above 43°C were forecast yesterday across Spain.
Forty of the Spain’s 50 regions have been placed under weather alert, with seven of them considered to be at extreme risk.
In the northeastern city of Girona, the mercury reached a record high of 43.9°C on Friday, the Catalan city’s highest-ever temperature on record.
Firefighters managed to contain 90 per cent of the wildfires that raged across 60 sq km of land in the northeastern Tarragona province, the Catalan government said yesterday.
Two other wildfires in the central Toledo region were still burning, officials said.
The heat killed at least three people as temperatures soared in central and northern Italy, while hospitals in the financial capital Milan saw a 35 per cent rise in emergency visits due to heat-related conditions, local media reported.