Madrid residents cool off with massive water fight during heatwave
Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes as wildfires engulf La Palma and Turkey amid Europe's sweltering heatwave that could see record-breaking temperatures this week.
Firefighters were trying to contain a wildfire on the Spanish island of La Palma and forced the evacuation of at least 4,000 people, while smoke was also seen rising as a fire broke out in the woodland of Canakkale in northwestern Turkey.
It comes as Europe braces for a new 'severe heat storm' which could bring record-breaking 49C temperatures to parts of Italy and Greece in the coming days.
Italian authorities issued red weather alerts across 16 cities as a fierce new anticyclone dubbed 'Charon' hits southern Europe, with Sardinia forecast to see temperatures of 49C (120F) this week - the hottest on record in the continent.
Spain, Italy and Greece have been experiencing scorching temperatures for several days already, damaging agriculture and forcing British travellers to cancel their holidays.
The Foreign Office has urged holidaying Britons to seek guidance on how to stay safe in the extreme heat.
While Cerberus anticyclone was named after the three-headed hound in Dante's inferno, the new more intense anticyclone Charon is named after the ferryman of the dead, a figure from Greek mythology.
And it may feel hotter than hell for the people living in the villages of Puntagorda and neighbouring Tijarafe in La Palma, who had to leave their homes, while ten aerial units and 300 firefighters on the ground sought to bring a raging wildfire under control.
The fire in La Palma started in the early hours of Saturday in El Pinar de Puntagorda - a wooded area in the north of the island. It is not yet known what caused the blaze, according to minister of industry Hector Gomez.
The island, which forms part of the Canaries archipelago off the coast of western Africa, has suffered extreme temperatures similar to those seen in a heatwave afflicting southern Europe.
'Difficult, it was a bit difficult because of the shifting wind and the heat of the last days but we are holding on,'said 46-year-old firefighter Jose Fernandez.
Firefighters were burning an area to ensure the blaze stopped at a road and did not spread further.
Manuel, another firefighter, said: 'Now we are going to do a technical fire at this perimeter. We will begin burning that slope so it will come down and stop at the road.
'That is what we are going to do to secure all this area and try to save a house. At night the wind is going to come from the top of the mountain downward and if we don't enclose this area, it could jump over.'
