Wildfires: Extreme heat causing problems across Europe

A fire in Greece

Fires are continuing to spread across Europe because of very high temperatures.

While France and the UK have seen temperatures cool in recent days, firefighters are still battling wildfires in countries like Greece, Spain and Italy.

Heatwaves are becoming stronger and more intense scientists are warning, as the planet heats up due to human-caused climate change.

The world's temperature has risen 1.1 degrees Celsius since 1880.

Dr Matthew Jones, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia said: "Heatwaves and droughts are exacerbated by climate change and are absolutely the defining factor in years with massive wildfire outbreaks, like the present one."

So far this year, the amount of land burnt by fires across the European Union is more than three times greater than what you would expect by the middle of July.

Unusually hot weather and low rainfall have dried out large areas of forest and grassland across much of Europe, creating good conditions for wildfires to spread.

Greece is tackling blazes to the north-east of the capital city of Athens.

Aircraft have been dropping large amounts of water on the flames, but fast winds have made the fires harder to contain.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated to safety from nearby areas.

Spain has been fighting fires in the north-west.

It's thought that more than 5,600 hectares of land have been burned in the north-eastern region of Aragon.

Planes were used to drop water on fires in north-west France

Over 95% of the fires in Europe are thought to have been caused by human activity, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Earlier this week, France was battling fires which forced 37,000 people to be evacuated from their homes.

More recent, cooler weather has made the fires there easier to tackle.