Fires in Europe: latest developments

Here are the main developments related to the wildfires raging in Spain and France on Sunday:

'Difficult hours' in Spain

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, visiting the fire zone west of Madrid on Sunday, said "difficult hours lie ahead" but added there were "positive" indications overnight towards containing the blaze.

'Unpredictable' blaze in France

France's interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said a massive wildfire in the southwestern Gironde region, near Bordeaux, "became extremely intense and unpredictable again" overnight.

It was "generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area", he said.

A total of 2,500 firefighters, including a Swiss firefighting team, 1,500 military personnel and around 1,200 police have been deployed to Gironde, he said.

220,000 evacuated from around French fire

French authorities said that more than 220,000 people have now been evacuated from the forest fire threatening areas near the city of Bordeaux.

Some 55,000 people were ordered to leave villages during the night as flames from the wildfire spread.

Some 30,000 people have also been evacuated from another wildfire zone in the Landes region farther south while in Spain at least 60,000 people have been forced to flee fires around Madrid.

Eight more Spanish towns evacuated

Spanish authorities ordered the evacuation of eight more municipalities near Toledo on Saturday evening as wildfires threatened areas west of Madrid.

The interior ministry said residents of Buenaventura, Navamorcuende, Real de San Vicente, Hinojosa de San Vicente, Castillo de Bayuela, Garciotum, Nuno Gomez and Pelahustan were told to leave their homes.

Roads and rail cut by fires

With high winds spreading flames in the giant Gironde wildfire, 60 kilometres (40 miles) of the main A63 highway from Bordeaux to the Spanish border has been closed, regional authorities said.

The SNCF rail company said it had also halted train traffic for about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Bordeaux.

Megafire burns 42,000 hectares

Regional authorities said Sunday that the Gironde fire in southwest France has now burned 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres) of land, making it one of the country's biggest devastations of land since World War II. A 1949 fire devoured some 50,000 hectares.

France sends 500 more troops

France's government ordered 500 more soldiers to the wildfire zone in the southwest, bringing the total number deployed to 1,500.

The troops will assist with evacuating residents from areas threatened by the fires and help safeguard homes left unattended during the emergency, the defence ministry said.

Var wildfire still active

Around 2,000 people were still unable to return home in France's southeastern Var department because of the Ponteves wildfire, which authorities said was still "very active" after burning 4,000 hectares in five days.

In Corsica, firefighters were still struggling to contain a blaze near Corte that had spread across more than 800 hectares.

One dead in Spain

A wildfire in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia killed one person on Friday before firefighters brought it under control, authorities there said.

burs/rmb/cw