Wildfires have taken a hold in southern Europe as the European Union sends four rescEU water bombing aircraft and more than 100 firefighters from Cyprus and Sweden to help tackle the blazes across France and Portugal. The EU is set to send more to at least 14 European countries.
Over in Portugal, 118 firefighters and 45 vehicles from Spain were immediately sent, together with three rescEU firefighting aircrafts from Italy and Spain.
"Europe stands with France," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X.
The blaze has injured 16 people, including four firefighters, and scorched some 4,600 hectares (11,367 acres) in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, local prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a post on X.
Early summer heatwaves in France and across western Europe in May and June have already parched vast areas of land, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year.
The Trevillach blaze was burning near the third stage of the Tour de France, leading to its closure to the public on Monday to allow firefighters easy access to the area, according to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
The motorcade of vehicles that follows the race was also kept to a minimum, he said. The stage, which is 196 km (122 miles) long, began in the Spanish city of Granollers and ends in Les Angles, in the Pyrenees-Orientales region of France.
Europe is warming at more than twice the global average, the World Meteorological Organization has said, making prolonged heat episodes increasingly likely.
Temperatures are forecast to once again hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in southwest France this week, with Portugal and Spain also baking under another heatwave, but are unlikely to reach the record highs seen in June.
On the Spanish side of the border, the fire ravaged 22 sq kms (2,200 ha) - 97% of them in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres.
Police have arrested an employee of a company contracted by Catalonia's regional government who is suspected of having sparked the wildfire by using an angle grinder at the side of a road.
South of Catalonia, in the eastern Castellon province, 500 people were evacuated to safety after a wildfire entered the Sierra de Espadan national park, home to a significant cork oak forest.
Portugal has suffered hundreds of blazes in the last few days, with the biggest already burning through 100 sq kms (10,000 ha) of land - the size of around 14,000 football pitches.
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The 27 July edition of Daybreak covers a pause in fighting between the U.S. and Iran, the latest developments in Russia's war against Ukraine, and mass evacuations as wildfires continue to spread across France and Spain.
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