Greece
Earlier, Greece carried out mass evacuations overnight in the northern suburbs of Athens and on the nearby island of Evia as the wind whipped up huge wildfires. Thousands left their homes near the Greek capital, which is cloaked in acrid smoke, and 600 fled Evia by boat.
On Wednesday, the authorities announced another large-scale evacuation of residents of 12 villages.
Due to the forest fires, Greece hasn't been able to stop the flames for more than a week. Firefighters from France, Switzerland, Sweden, Cyprus, and Romania have been deployed to assist Greece.
The fire came very close to people’s houses. Therefore, the authorities decided to evacuate the inhabitants of twelve villages.
Dozens of homes have been destroyed or damaged, and several dozen injured people are in hospital.
"If some people still doubt if climate change is real, let them come and see the intensity of phenomena here," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
The fire set the country aflame on July 31. A heat mark of +46 degrees has been recorded. In addition, gale-force winds are forecast to fan the many blazes.
Italy
Fires ravaged southern Italy on Wednesday, burning thousands of acres of land and killing a man in his home, as temperatures hit records well above 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) and hot winds stoked the flames.
Multiple blazes erupted in Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, where a 76-year-old man died after his house collapsed due to the flames, Ansa news agency reported.
"Yet another victim of the fires. We are losing our history, our identity is turning to ashes, our soul is burning," the mayor of Reggio Calabria, Giuseppe Falcomata, wrote on Facebook.
He urged people to keep away from the affected areas.
Fires are also sweeping through Sicily, destroying trees and threatening property in the southern and central parts of the island, local media reported.
In the town of Floridia, in southern Sicily, the temperature reached 48.8 degrees Celsius in early afternoon, the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe, daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reported, citing the regional meteorological information system.
Firemen said on Twitter they had carried out more than 3,000 operations in Sicily and Calabria in the last 12 hours, employing seven planes to try to douse the flames from above.
"We must immediately respond to this emergency, providing economic relief to those who have lost everything," said Agriculture Minister Stefano Patuanelli.