Officials issue emergency warning for largest Greek island as wildfires spread, while Sicilian capital endures record heat
Crete has been placed on red alert as wildfires continue to sweep across the Greek islands and the airport in the Sicilian city of Palermo was forced to close for several hours by approaching flames.
Greece’s Civil Protection issued an emergency “extreme fire risk” alert on the tourist island, which welcomed nearly five million visitors last year, many of them British holidaymakers.
The warning puts Crete in the highest risk category across Greece along with Rhodes, where firefighters have battled blazes for the past seven days following a near record-breaking heatwave across southern Europe.
In Sicily, the authorities were forced to shut an airport in Palermo, the capital, on Monday after a wildfire broke out within its perimeter. Temperatures in Palermo rose to 47C (116C) on Monday – the highest since 1999, when they reached 44.8C.