Wildfires scorch large swaths of southeast Europe and the Balkans

Firefighters battled on Monday to put out wildfires in three separate provinces of Turkey, in Greece and near a tourist resort in Albania, stoked by strong winds after days of searing heat across the Mediterranean region.

Smoke billowed over the mountainous Black Sea province of Karabuk, 200 kilometres north of the capital, Ankara, as a wildfire that raged for a sixth day forced the evacuation of more than a dozen villages and burned swaths of forests.

In the northwestern province of Bursa, three firefighters were killed on Sunday when their vehicle crashed, Turkey’s Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said on Monday. Crews fought two separate fires there on Monday, following the evacuation of more than 3,600 people from settlements in the southern provinces of Mersin and Antalya.

Turkey has suffered dozens of wildfires in recent weeks as temperatures have soared, and 10 firefighters were killed last week battling a blaze in the central Eskisehir province.

Hot and dry summers are common in the Mediterranean region, but more intense heat waves have contributed to destructive wildfires in recent years amid fast-rising temperatures across the globe.

At least 44 wildfires broke out in Greece in the past 24 hours, the fire brigade said on Monday afternoon.

On the southern Greek island of Kythera, strong winds rekindled a fire burning since Saturday. In Athens, firefighters quickly contained a fire that broke out at the foot of Mount Hymettus, near a university campus and densely populated suburbs.

Over the weekend, several villages in Greece were evacuated, and five people were injured in separate wildfires.

As Greece saw off its third summer heat wave on Monday, rainy weather in Serbia helped firefighters there bring more than 100 wildfires under control.

In Albania, more than 900 firefighters assisted by the army battled to control a wildfire before it reached the seaside city of Saranda and other tourist resorts in the south of the country on the Ionian coast.

Some 13 people have been arrested for arson-related offences in the past three days, police said.

Bulgaria, assisted by several European countries, deployed firefighting planes to help tame a large wildfire near the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

So far, the flames have scorched nearly 6,500 hectares in total. Two people have been detained by authorities investigating the cause of the fires, according to local media.

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