Wildfires have also spread across Bulgaria,with emergency services describing the situation as ‘critical’.

Theodora Vasileva,mayor of one of the devastated villages,Kozarevo, in the southeastern province of Yambol,said this is the first time she had witnessed a disaster of such magnitude.

She added: ‘The rapid notification system helped us a lot – people started calling and gathered in minutes. This is the first time I am seeing this hell; the sunflower crops were all in flames.

‘The elderly,whose homes are everything for them,wept. They were so worried,but everything is under control for now,their houses are preserved.’