Paris [France], July 26: More than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes and holiday resorts in the face of massive, uncontained wildfires in France and Spain.
Spanish firefighters hoped to get control of wildfires raging near the capital Madrid on Saturday, but an official warned that erratic winds threatened to fan the blazes further, as thick grey smoke filled the sky west of the city.
Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government's emergency management chief, said the wildfire near the capital was "at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain".
Spain's interior ministry said the flames have ravaged nearly 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) in the Madrid region and "between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares" in the neighbouring province of Avila. The total is more than twice the surface area of the French capital, Paris.
The ministry added that a total of 70,000 people had been evacuated.
Two separate wildfires combined on Friday to become one huge blaze, which was close to merging with yet another in the neighbouring Castilla y Leon region. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday the priority in tackling the wildfires was to "save lives", warning that a "complex" fight lay ahead.
"Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas," Sanchez told reporters after attending an emergency planning meeting in Cenicientos, a village at the heart of the fire zone.
"We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be."
In France, authorities on Saturday evacuated thousands of people from suburbs near Bordeaux as wildfires in areas around the city showed no signs of abating.
Sophie Brocas, who heads the local administration of La Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde, which covers the Bordeaux region, said the areas of Le Haillan, Eysines and Merignac were being cleared out.
The Bordeaux region is famed for its vineyards and the is one of the main transport hubs for tourists visiting nearby holiday resorts on the Atlantic coast.
Around 44,000 people fled the upmarket Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, with the only road threatened by flames.
Boats moved hundreds of people away from the fires, while others drove off the peninsula, known for its millionaire residences. More than 50 houses there have been destroyed.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said 197,000 people had so far been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions.
"The fires which are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before," Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday. Lecornu called a new government crisis meeting later on Saturday over the wildfires, his office announced.
Source: Qatar Tribune