A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds on the southern Greek island of Crete has forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists, officials have said.
An elderly man died in neighbouring Turkey, where wildfires forced the evacuation of six villages in the western province of Izmir.
Hot dry weather in Greece - not unusual for this time of year - has heightened the risk of a repeat of summer wildfires that have hit the country in recent years, while Turkey, although spared from the recent heatwaves that gripped southern Europe, has battled the effects of a long-term drought brought on by climate change.
On Crete, about 5,000 people were evacuated in response to a blaze that broke out yesterday evening, the president of the regional hotels' association said.
Yorgos Tzarakis said about 3,000 tourists and 2,000 residents had been moved, mostly overnight, as a "precaution" from areas close to the Crete resort town of Ierapetra.
Watch: Tourist captures billowing plumes of smoke rising
Earlier, vice-prefect Yannis Androulakis told Greek broadcaster Mega confirmed "evacuations took place in numerous hotels and tourists were safely transferred to a closed gymnasium in the municipality of Ierapetra," in the southeast.
The authorities acted because water bomber planes could not reach the affected areas overnight, he added.
"At the moment, there are three active fronts," Mr Androulakis said. "Because of the strong winds, the fire has progressed quite rapidly."
Around 270 firefighters, 10 helicopters and drones have been deployed to tackle the blaze, said Vassilios Vathrakoyannis, a spokesman for the fire service.
They include reinforcements sent in from the capital, Athens.
"There are still a number of different fronts. The fire is burning scrubland and crops," he said.
"The winds are very strong - up to nine on the Beaufort scale."
One dead in Turkey
In Turkey, two wildfires broke out near Izmir, Turkey's third city. In each case, three villages were evacuated.
"An elderly, bedridden patient could not be saved," Salih Uzun, a politician in Izmir for the opposition CHP party, said of the blaze close to Odemis.
"The biggest problem is the wind speed of up to 85km/h which is causing the fire to spread very quickly. And it constantly changes direction," Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said.
"So the intervention from both land and air is seriously challenging," he told reporters, saying the flames had cut off the main highway from Izmir city.
In both places, a total of "nine planes, 22 helicopters and 1,100 vehicles are intensively fighting the fires".
He said both fires in the province, as well as others that began at the weekend and have been brought under control, "were caused by power cables".
Citing forestry ministry figures, meteorologist Ismail Kucuk said "90% of forest fires" were due to man-made causes.
Power cables in particular posed a risk if they were not properly maintained, he said.
Uneven, arid terrain
In Crete, Greece's largest island, the arid, uneven landscape criss-crossed by gullies, has made it difficult for firefighters to tackle the blaze.
The fire damaged houses and crops in fruit and vegetable greenhouses, media reports said.
Like the rest of Crete, Ierapetra - a seaside resort with a population of 23,000 - takes in thousands of tourists in the summer.
The risk of fires was "considerable" in July, the hottest month of the year in Greece, Mr Vathrakoyannis said.
The country recorded its hottest-ever summer last year when 45,000 hectares (110,000 acres) of land was burned, according to WWF Greece and the Athens National Observatory.
In terms of surface area destroyed, 2023 was the worst on record.
Nearly 175,000 hectares were obliterated and 20 people died during heatwaves when temperatures rose in places to 46C.
Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem.
Europe gripped by heatwave
The heatwave across Europe this week broke high temperature records, caused the closure of schools and increased the risk of fire.
Authorities in Spain's Catalonia region on Tuesday confined about 14,000 people to their homes due to two wildfires that broke out almost simultaneously in the province of Lerida.
In one of the blazes, near the city of Cosco, "two people were found lifeless by firefighters", the fire and emergency service said in a statement.
The exact cause of the fire was unclear, but the service said the recent heat, dry conditions and strong winds caused by storms had increased the intensity of the flames.
Hours earlier, police in the region had reported the death of a two-year-old boy after he was left in a parked car in the sun for several hours.
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Spain is in the midst of an intense heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40C in many places and several heat records set for the month of June.
One person died in the southern city of Cordoba and another in Barcelona, both while doing road work on Saturday and likely victims of heatstroke.
According to scientists, extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and storms, are becoming more intense due to man-made climate change.
