Floods in Poland and wildfires in Portugal show reality of climate breakdown, says EU

Emergency crews battle to reinforce defences around Wrocław, Poland’s third city, amid devastating rainfall

Soldiers, emergency workers and volunteers battled through the night to reinforce defences around Wrocław, Poland’s third biggest city, as the EU said flooding in central Europe happening simultaneously alongside wildfires in Portugal showed climate breakdown in action.

More than five times the average rainfall for the whole of September has fallen in five days on swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, triggering devastating flooding that has killed 22 people in four countries.