Pictures of the week: A watermelon fountain, volcanic activity and football

The Independent’s picture editors bring you the best photography from all corners of the planet

Oriane Bertone of France competes in the Women’s Boulder and Lead final at the IFSC Climbing World Championship 2023, in Bern, Switzerland (EPA)

Each week the picture editors at The Independent sort through hundreds of thousands images sent into us by photography agencies from all around the world.

These are some of the most eye-catching and the most striking images from culture, news, politics, sport and lifestyle.

You can also keep up with the latest photography making headlines via our Instagram.

(AFP/Getty)

Hot air balloons take to the air in a mass ascent at dawn during the Bristol international balloon fiesta in Ashton Court, Bristol.

(AFP via Getty)

A man wades through a flooded street in Bago township in Myanmar’s Bago region.

(AFP via Getty)

A group of 145 swimmers take part in an effort to stretch a 78m-long national flag in the sea ahead of Indonesia’s 78th Independence Day in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

(Reuters)

A bumblebee feeds on a sunflower field in Thun-Saint-Martin, France.

(AP)

Boys play football as the city skyline is seen in the background in Jakarta, Indonesia.

(AP)

An Icelandic foal stands in a meadow of a stud farm as the sun rises in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany.

(EPA)

Visitors examine a fountain filled with watermelons and melons in the State Department Store GUM, at the Red Square in Moscow, Russia.

(AFP via Getty)

Volcano Mount Merapi belches fumes during an eruption, as viewed from Wonokerto village, Yogyakarta, in Indonesia.

(EPA)

“Tony” the gorilla eats his breakfast at Kyiv Zoo in Ukraine.