While Britain wades through its washed-out summer, hundreds of lives in Eastern and southern Europe have been lost in a week of stifling temperatures and forest fires.

An estimated 500 deaths were attributed to the hottest weather for a century in Hungary, while temperature records were also set in Bulgaria and Greece. The mercury soared to 45C (113F) in Athens yesterday.

Albania, Bosnia and Macedonia each declared a state of emergency as hospitals struggled to cope with victims of heat-related conditions.

In Italy, Rome sweltered, while on the coast in Puglia holidaymakers had to escape by sea from brush fires that swept down to the beaches and claimed at least four lives.

Winds fanned dozens of fires in Greece, but the real culprits behind many of the blazes were believed to be arsonists working for property developers. Athens was ringed by fires, forcing the evacuation of children’s summer camps and a village near Corinth.

Several hundred acres of woodland have been burnt in the hills in the past week and three firemen died in one fire.

The Kathimerini newspaper called the fires “an ecological crime without punishment”. It referred to data from the European Central Bank showing that corruption in Greece – including bribes to officials by land-hungry property developers – cost the country €15 billion (£10 billion) a year. There have been two million applications to declassify forest land for building and commercial development and some of those who are turned down simply hire arsonists to clear the land and then bribe officials to look the other way. “People don’t think twice about turning farmland or public land into building plots,” Kathimerini said. “The powers that be, meanwhile, do nothing.”

In Hungary, temperatures hit 41.9C in the southern city of Kiskunhalas – the highest recorded in the country. Ferenc Falus, the chief medical officer, said that in the past week the heat in central Hungary “contributed to the early death of 230 people, which nationally means about 500 deaths”. Most were attributed to heatstroke, cardiovascular problems and other illnesses aggravated by the high temperatures.

Bulgaria reached its highest recorded temperature of 44C and shifts for municipal workers were reduced to half a day.

Eugen Nicolaescu, the Romanian Health Minister, said that at least 27 people had died from heat-related conditions. Hundreds of mostly elderly people had collapsed in the street, he said.

Romanian authorities said that the heat had resulted in 19,000 people being admitted to hospital, most often with respiratory problems. Theatres in Bucharest were converted into water distribution centres.

Four people were killed by fast-moving forest fires in southern Italy that were blamed on arsonists. Emergency workers used boats and helicopters to transfer 4,000 holidaymakers and residents to safety from beaches in Puglia. Two people were found burnt to death in a car and two were suffocated by smoke on a beach near the village of Peschici. The pilot of a firefighting plane was killed on Monday when he crashed in the Abruzzo region.

About 2,000 fires have been reported in Serbia in the past five days, leaving at least 400 acres of forest burnt. In Macedonia, one person died and twenty were forced to leave burning houses near Bitola, the country’s second-largest city, as temperatures reached 42C amid a declared national emergency.

The extreme temperatures were dipping last night as southern and Eastern Europe prepared for storms in place of the scorching sunshine.