Wildfire rips across Europe as continent braces for another heatwave

As Europe faces its third heatwave in six weeks, temperatures

reaching upwards of 40 degrees Celsius are fuelling

wildfires across the continent.

Firefighters are struggling to contain active fires in

France and Spain, with the

death toll in the latter climbing to 12.

Emergency teams and Spanish Civil Guard officers walked through charred

hillsides and burnt-out villages in Spain's Almeria region, inspecting the

devastation and some 66 square kilometres of scorched forest and farmland.

Fire crews carried out controlled burns overnight around the perimeter of the fire,

which broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near Almeria's Sierra de los

Filabres.

Firefighters are also working to contain several wildfires that sprouted

across southern France.

In Drome, military helicopters drop water and fire retardant from above,

to suppress the angry flames.

Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising

twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s. There have been

10,000 heat-related deaths reported in Europe this June alone.