Greece wildfire ‘worst on European soil in years,’ Copernicus says

Blazes in Greece burned for a seventh day on Friday, destroying tens of thousands of hectares of land in the northeast alone, in what the EU-backed Copernicus Climate Change Service said was the largest recorded wildfire on European soil in years.

"Greece is going through the most difficult year, in terms of climatic conditions, in the history of recording and collecting meteorological data," government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis told a regular briefing.

Fire crews were battling 517 wildfires that had broken out across Greece since last Friday, he said, fuelled by high temperatures and in some cases gale force winds.

While summer wildfires are common in Greece, the government says conditions, which scientists link to climate change have made them more intense this year.

"It is the combination of high temperatures, drought and winds that unfortunately...