The European Union is sending two planes to help Spain tackle raging wildfires, after the country activated an EU disaster assistance mechanism for fires for the first time ever. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told local media he had requested two water bomber aircraft from the EU to be deployed to the worst affected areas.

Spain on Thursday mourned its third wildfire death this week and Greece began beating back a blaze threatening its third-largest city Patras as an unrelenting heatwave stoked tinderbox conditions in southern Europe.

A volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalised as the state weather agency warned that almost all of the country was at extreme or very high risk of fire.