Air quality deteriorated across large parts of Spain over the past week as a result of the wildfires, data from the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring agency showed. Smoke from the Iberian Peninsula fires reached France, the UK, and Scandinavia, it said.

Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.

Two firefighters were killed on Sunday — one in each country, both in road accidents — taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain.