Raging wildfires forced the closure of Palermo Airport on Tuesday morning as thousands of tourists were forced to abandon European holidays because of blazes and extreme weather.
Flames could be seen surrounding the runway in a video shared online by the airport in the Sicilian capital, as its operator said firefighters were working to put out the inferno.
It comes as a suffocating heatwave continued to cause chaos in southern Europe, with scorching temperatures bringing increased risk of blazes and deaths.
Some 30,000 British tourists with holidays booked to Greece are in limbo as firefighters battle to control more than 80 wildfires that have been burning for the last week.
More than 5,000 Britons were stranded on the island on Monday after fleeing hotels. Operators, including Jet2 and easyJet, have begun evacuating tourists on repatriation flights back to the UK.
Some resorts on the island have suffered catastrophic damage and there are doubts they will reopen this summer.
Meanwhile in Sicily, the main airport of Catania, Italy’s fifth-largest, was closed last week due to a fire in a terminal building and has reopened only for a few flights.
In some eastern parts of the island temperatures rose to 47.6C on Monday, close to a record European high of 48.8C recorded on Sicily two years ago.
On Tuesday, 16 Italian cities were put on red alert by the government over blisteringly high heat.
These include Palermo and Catania, where power and water supply cuts that local officials blamed in part on the heat have been frequent in recent days.
Overnight a storm in Milan tore off roofs and uprooted trees, blocking roads and disrupting overground transportation in country’s financial capital.
Two women were killed in the northern Monza and Brescia provinces after being crushed by falling trees.
A Delta flight from Milan to New York was seriously damaged by hailstorm and forced to land in Rome.
Italy is one of the European countries most affected by climate change, and also suffered deadly floods in May.
Extreme heat has also swept across North America, North Africa and Asia, while June 2023 was the world’s hottest month on record.
Met Office Experts said extreme temperatures of more than 40C are also becoming increasingly likely in the UK due to climate change as prepares to publish its annual report.
The British Foreign Office is warning about extreme weather and wildfires on the continent, but has not advised against travelling.
Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove said he plans to holiday on the Greek island of Evia in just over a week and insisted the region is safe for holidaymakers.
The minister denied that the Foreign Office has taken too relaxed an approach by not issuing advice not to go.
“In fact I’m due to go on holiday, God willing, to Greece in just over a week’s time,” he told Times Radio. “Not to Rhodes but to another island and I’m looking forward to going.
“Greece is a wonderful country, a wonderful place to holiday and we do need to support the Greek government in dealing with the situation in Rhodes. My heart goes out to those who are affected but the advice is clear, if you follow the Foreign Office advice it is safe.”
