The devastating scale of destruction from a week of wildfires in Greece and Southern Europe, including Italy, is still being assessed.

the European Union has undertaken one of its largest firefighting operations ever to contain the blazes. 

In a televised address to the nation, Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, apologised for the failings in tackling the blazes. 

He said 586 fires had erupted in the past week “in all corners of Greece”

More than 2,600 people have so far been evacuated from Evia, the country’s second-largest island and one of the most affected areas, on a flotilla of boats. 

Wildfires have ravaged large parts of southern Europe as the region endures its most extreme heatwave in three decades.