In Pictures: Wildfires burn across Europe in dry, hot weather

A firefighter tries to extinguish the flames next to motorcycles during a wildfire near Megara town, west of Athens, Greece (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

In a week of record-breaking heat in Europe, countries in the continent’s warmer and drier southern belt have struggled to contain a swath of blazes that have stretched emergency services and blackened skies.

A volunteer uses a tree branch to try and prevent a forest fire from reaching homes in Casal da Quinta, outside Leiria, central Portugal (Joao Henriques/AP)