Wildfires: Dramatic video shows inferno on Italian motorway inches from traffic

Watch: Flames get inches from cars going into tunnel on Italian highway

This is the terrifying moment drivers were met with a huge blaze coming just inches from their cars on a busy highway.

Wildfires have ravaged parts of Europe, most notably on the Greek island of Rhodes, where thousands of Britons have been rescued.

But Italy is also suffering from multiple blazes – including on Sicily, where raging flames near a highway on the island’s capital of Palermo approached passing cars.

Dramatic eyewitness video show flames nearing a highway as firefighters raced against time to put off the wildfires.

Fires can be seen in the distance but drivers were also filmed passing the intense heat of the blaze on the highway.

Read more: Are Greece wildfires caused by climate change?

The incident added to Sicily's travel misery at the peak of the tourist season after the island's main airport of Catania was closed last week due to a fire in a terminal building and has reopened only for a few flights.

It comes as a heatwave hit southern Europe, with with scorching temperatures bringing increased risk of fires and deaths.

In some parts of eastern Sicily, temperatures were reported to have risen to 47.6C on Monday, close to a record European high of 48.8C recorded on the island two years ago.

Temperatures of over 40C have led to an outbreak of fires across islands in Greece, with the blaze in Rhodes causing more than 20,000 people to be evacuated.

Read more: Is it safe to travel to Greece? UK Foreign Office changes advice

Orders to evacuate have also been issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia.

As many as 10,000 Britons are estimated to be in Rhodes, the Foreign Office said, with 30,000 due to head there in the next few weeks, according to The Times.

The Foreign Office has not advised Britons to avoid non-essential travel to the entire island, while some travel companies are continuing to fly holidaymakers to Rhodes as they claim the blazes are not affecting the whole island.

Repatriation flights continued to land in the UK on Tuesday after rescuing holidaymakers who had been sleeping in schools, sports centres and airports.

Wildfires approach homes in Palermo

More shocking video footage from Palermo shows residents evacuating their homes as fires snake dangerously close to the properties.

Flames appear just a few feet away from hillside homes, with people watching from a balcony as they prepare to leave.

Read more: What is ‘fire weather’? Parts of Greece, Italy and Turkey face ‘extreme’ risk in coming days

Some could be seen hugging each other as they got in cars, seemingly evacuating the area.

Firefighters could be seen battling the blaze, with thick smoke billowing out from the wildfires.

More than 120 families were evacuated from their homes in Mondello, Capo Gallo and Poggio Ridente, while over 200 people in Palermo sought medical attention for smoke inhalation.

Meanwhile, an 88-year-old woman was reported to have died on Tuesday in San Martino delle Scale, a few miles from Palermo, due to fires stopping emergency services from reaching her in time.

A couple in their 70s were also found dead in a holiday home gutted by a fire near Palermo.