Wildfires spreading across Portugal’s Algarve region as temperatures reach 46C

Seven-hundred firefighters and 12 water-dropping aircraft are battling wildfires in southern Portugal's Algarve region.

Lisbon has also broken a 37-year-old record to notch its hottest temperature ever as an unrelenting heatwave bakes Portugal and neighbouring Spain.

Portugal’s weather service said the capital reached 44C (111.2F) on Saturday, surpassing the city’s previous record of 43C (109.4F) set in 1981.

The day’s hottest temperature of 46.8C (116.2F) was recorded at Alvega in the centre of Portugal.

The country’s highest temperature on record is 47.4C (117.3F) from 2003.

People cool off in a fountain in the basque city of Vitoria, northern Spain. Credit: AP

The hot, dusty conditions across the Iberian Peninsula are the result of a mass of hot air from Africa.

In Spain, heat warnings have been issued for 41 of the country's 50 provinces as temperatures are expected to reach up to 44C (111.2F).

In northern Europe, Sweden is still under threat from wildfires, which in recent weeks have extended into the Arctic Circle.