Athens/Istanbul: A fire in Turkey forced the closing of a shipping passage, while winds fanned the flames in Greece, where 20 people have already died, fueling wildfires and causing health advisories across Europe.
To enable helicopters and planes to drop water on a nearby forest fire, Turkish officials briefly closed the Dardanelles Strait to shipping, causing a line-up of roughly 100 cargo ships. A significant shipping route for goods like wheat and oil is the strait that connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea.
In Greece, firefighters were battling a blaze for a second day close to Athens and officials warned that heat and winds risked fuelling more wildfires, a day after 18 bodies, probably migrants, were found in a charred northern forest. There have been up to 355 wildfires, of which 209 have been started in the previous night.
France, which widened its heatwave red alert in the south, reported the country’s highest average temperature for the late summer period since records began in 1947. It said some areas would experience temperatures of 42°C. Italy issued heat red alerts in 17 of its 27 main cities, including Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice.