WORLD ON FIRE

HOW COUNTRIES ARE COPING WITH HEATWAVE CRISIS | Power cuts, air-raid shelters and curfews as climate change turns heat up to danger level

- EMILY RETTER

A GLOBAL inferno is raging after an eruption of record temperatures.

As tourists near Athens in Greece fled wildfires, the US and Asia also baked.

Yesterday World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted the climate crisis is not a warning and is happening now.

Urging leaders to act immediately, he said: "In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record." On Sunday, temperatures hit over 52C in California's Death Valley, heading towards the world record of 56.7C.

China faced a national high of 52.2C and Japan is due a record 42C in days.

In southern Europe, the Cerberus heatwave, named after the multi-headed dog that guards the Underworld's gates in Greek mythology, continued to grip locals and tourists in Spain.

Gazelles also fled wildfires near Canakkale, Turkey.

The World Meteorological Organization warned the hot spell will intensify by mid-week, with fears it may top Europe's record of 48.8C.

It comes as a new anticyclone Charon, named after Ancient Greece's ferryman of the dead, advances swiftly from north Africa.

Alarmingly, the Arctic reached a record 28.8C at Norway's Slettnes Fyr lighthouse.

Africa set a record night-time high with a low of 39.6C in Algeria. It is no wonder scientists predict 2023 will be the hottest year since records began in the mid-19th century.

Dr Akshay Deoras, of the University of Reading, said: "Rising temperatures fuelled by greenhouse gas emissions are turning up the heat on Europe and the rest of our planet."

But as experts expect the UK to face a blistering heatwave later this summer, what can we learn from a world at war with its weather?

From air-raid shelters in China, to power cuts in Japan, and people being urged to stay indoors in Spain, here's how the globe is battling the dangerous scorch...

CHINA