New wildfire forces evacuation of 500 people in France

A new wildfire in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of more than 500 people and burned 1,100 hectares, officials said.

This summer southwest France has been ravaged by forest fires which advanced quickly because of tinderbox conditions worsened by a series of heatwaves.

A new fire broke out in the department of Landes yesterday, with much of the country in the grip of a new heatwave.

Some 500 firefighters have been deployed to battle the blaze.

"The next fifteen hours will be decisive," prefect Gilles Clavreul told reporters.

Fire chief Arnaud Fabre said the fire was slowing down but he added he was concerned about potential flare-ups as the heat returns, with temperatures expected to reach 36C later Friday.

Around midnight, the flames were only a few hundred meters from Luglon, a small village that sits in the pine forest of the Landes de Gascogne nature park.

No homes have been destroyed.

This morning, thick smoke blanketed the village in an opaque haze.

"We protected the houses. Everything held," a firefighter told one of the residents.

French officials are still taking stock of the damage caused by a series of fires, mainly in the southwest of France, including the largest wildfire since 1949 in the department of Gironde.

Wildfire moves towards Croatian tourist town, 36 injured

A wildfire in Croatia driven by strong winds has engulfed houses in the tourist town of Omis overnight, ⁠forcing about 1,000 people to evacuate and injuring dozens, fire brigade and health officials said.

Flames enveloped settlements and trees over 1,000 hectares,turning the night sky red above Omis, a scenic town on Croatia's Dalmatian coast surrounded by trees and rocky hills.

Of thirty-six people treated by ambulance services in the city of Split, about 25km to the north, 14 were hospitalised and seven had life-threatening injuries, health officials said.

Emergency shelters, opened in several towns on ‌the stretch from Omis to ⁠Split, accommodated about 1,000 people overnight.

"It was a strong fire, it swept everything on its way...there has been huge material damage," a fire brigade spokesperson said.

The fire appeared to have calmed this morning and there were no open flames, he said.

Part of the firefighting force and four aircraft were ‌redeployed to another fire further south in the Peljesac peninsula, a forested area known for vineyards.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic was on the ⁠way to Omis with several government ministers, local media reported.

Hot weather and drought that ‌scientists link to climate change have created ideal conditions for wildfires across ⁠Europe this summer, especially ‌in France, Spain and Greece.

The Balkans has also endured several heatwaves.

The fires have threatened tourism at the heart of holiday season. Hundreds of holidaymakers fled a beach town in northern Greece by boat yesterday ⁠as a blaze raced across a forest towards the shore.

In Croatia, 286 firefighters, 90 fire vehicles ⁠and four aircraft battled the fire through the night.

A stretch of a major coastal highway was shut.

"Everything flared up in a second," the owner of acafe near where the fire broke out in Lokva Rogoznica, told the Jutarnji List newspaper.

"It just happened all of a sudden, there was an open flame in the part ‌where there is a forest and no houses."

Hundreds evacuated as wildfire spreads in western Germany

Around 1,800 people had to leave their homes in western Germany overnight as a wildfire spread nearby, officials said, with helicopters and army equipment deployed to help battle the flames.

A district of the town of Huertgenwald near the Belgian and Dutch borders was evacuated after the fire expanded from 25 hectares to 300 hectares by this morning.

Residents were urged to "take only the most important personal items" with them as the fire draws nearer, a spokeswoman for the local district said.

Around 300 emergency services personnel have been sent to try to put the fire out, the spokeswoman said, and two army tanks were also helping the effort.

One helicopter has been deployed with two more expected to join and firebreaks have been cut through the forest to stop the blaze spreading.

Many parts of Europe have experienced successive heatwaves and drought this summer, with wildfires breaking out across the continent, including in Germany.

The heatwave in late June saw Germany break its temperature record for three days in a row, hitting 41.7C.