Emergency services continue to battle fires and floods in Greece and Turkey

WILDFIRES continued to ravage Greece yesterday, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the blazes as the country’s “greatest ecological disaster in decades”.

Rain has helped damp the flames but weeks of scorching summer weather still lie ahead.

The fires have left three dead, hundreds homeless, forced thousands to flee, and caused economic and environmental devastation.

Greece is just one of a number of countries in the Mediterranean region that have been hit by a savage fire season which authorities have blamed on climate change.

Meanwhile Turkey said the death toll from severe floods and mudslides on the Black Sea coast had risen to 17.

The floods battered the coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun on Wednesday, demolishing homes and bridges and sweeping away cars.

Helicopters scrambled to rescue people stranded on rooftops.

Climate scientists say there is little doubt that climate change is driving more extreme events, such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms.

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