This is the moment a Greek police officer gets down on his knees and begs a nun to abandon a convent as a fiery inferno approaches.

The footage shows police officers trying to convince nuns to leave their hilltop convent overlooking a valley as the air thickens with smoke.

The images then cut to a police officer wearing a face mask and down on one knee apparently pleading with one of the nuns to evacuate.

The images were reportedly filmed at a convent in Mandra, in the Greek region of West Attica, not far from the capital Athens.

Locals had long since evacuated but the nuns remained unmoved.

Eventually, the policeman, on his knees, reportedly convinced 35 nuns to evacuate the building.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has warned of a “heat dome” in the middle of Europe with “stable” temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius in some countries including Greece, eastern Spain, and in southern Italy.

Greece has asked other European countries for help to stop the fires, which are raging out of control in a number of regions.