Parts of Europe burn as millions face record heat

A major wildfire on agricultural land in north-west Turkey prompted hundreds of evacuations (Khalil Hamra/AP)

Wildfires burned in parts of Europe on Tuesday as millions of people across the continent struggled to adapt to the new reality: record summer heat.

Europe – where temperatures in some areas were soaring past 40C – is warming faster than any other continent, at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.