The president of the Lazio region Nicola Zingaretti has called on the Italian government to declare a state of emergency over the ongoing spate of wildfires in the region.

Zingaretti said that on 16 July alone firefighters carried out 120 interventions in the greater Rome area, with the worst bushfires in Ladispoli and Civitiavecchia, up the coast north-west of the capital, and Sant'Angelo Romano, Anguillara and Lago di Martignano further east. 

There was also a toxic fire at a car scrapyard in the Centocelle suburb of Rome, the fifth such blaze in the last six weeks

Zingaretti claimed recently that the majority of the blazes were being started deliberately.