Infernos across Southern Europe have scorched hundreds of thousands of hectares, in what could be the continent’s worst ever modern peacetime disasters.

French and Spanish residents have fled in shock over the extent of this season's wildfires.

The violence of fires, fuelled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change, has caught authorities off guard, with firefighters in Spain admitting the fires…

Officials have described it as the ‘worst fire in the history of the region’