Heatwave leads to 38 deaths in Europe

Sizzling temperatures in Greece, Italy and Romania have brought power cuts and brush fires in a heatwave that has led to at least 38 deaths in south-east Europe in recent days.

Four more people were reported dead in southern Romania yesterday, bringing the country’s death toll to 23.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that three elderly people died in Sicily after suffering heart failure blamed by doctors on the heat.

In Greece, seven large brush fires broke out on Monday and yesterday and hundreds of people were evacuated from threatened homes near the southern city of Pyrgos, 200 miles south west of Athens.

Air tankers helped contain that blaze after a night-long effort.