Western France is facing a “heat apocalypse”, experts have warned, as extreme temperatures continue to hit much of Europe.
Temperatures could reach record levels in 15 regions of the southwest, with firefighters battling wildfires and thousands forced to evacuate.
Blazes in Spain, Portugal and Greece have forced thousands more to flee.
Record temperatures were also expected in parts of the UK, which has its first ever red extreme heat warning in place.
Wildfires in France in recent days have forced over 24,000 people to flee, with emergency shelters set up for evacuees.
Gironde, a popular tourist region in the southwest, has been hit particularly badly, with firefighters battling to control fires which have destroyed over 14,000 hectares (34,000 acres) of land since last Tuesday.
Jean-Luc Gleyze, president of the Gironde region, told the BBC the fires had continued to grow in La-Teste-de-Buch and Landiras because of the hot and windy weather, making it difficult for firefighters to contain them.
“They have to fight against this fire which is growing and growing, sometimes getting very, very high,” he said.
The heatwave has prompted warnings of what one meteorologist described to AFP news agency as “an apocalypse of heat” in some areas of the southwest.
The heatwave has impacted other areas of France too. The city of Brest in north-western Brittany reached 40C (104F), nearly double its usual average for July.
In Spain and Portugal, more than 1,000 deaths have been attributed to the heat in recent days.
In Spain’s north-western province of Zamora, where a fire has been blazing since the weekend, the body of a shepherd was found in the Sierra de la Culebra mountain range. He was the second fatality of the Zamora fire after a 62-year-old firefighter was killed on Sunday.
In the north-eastern region of Catalonia, fire came right up to the house of Mercedes Pino, near Pont de Vilomara.
“I was in bed and through the window I saw a very red light,” she told Spanish media. “I ran as fast as I could to the door and I saw a flame burning a caravan we have in front of the door.”
Fires also broke out in Castilla y León, Galicia, Castille, Andalusia and Extremadura. Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, visited Extremadura on Monday. -BBC
