A wildfire burning out of control in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of 10,000 people from two dozen small towns and villages near the Spanish border and officials said strong winds on Monday would further fan the blaze.
The blaze has injured 16 people, including four firefighters, and scorched some 4,600 hectares in the foothills of the French Pyrénées, local prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a post on X.
"This morning conditions are deteriorating again," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned on French TV station TF1. "Today the battle resumes."
The European Union said on Monday it was sending four waterbombing aircraft to France from Cyprus and Sweden, and more than 100 firefighters, to help emergency teams in Trevillach near the city of Perpignan.
Read moreWildfires rage in southern France, 3,000 people evacuated
Early summer heatwaves in France and across western Europe in May and June have scorched vast areas of land, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year.
The Trevillach blaze was burning in the vicinity of 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 kilometres long, began in the Spanish city of Granollers and ends in Les Angles, in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of France.
Read moreTour de France stage to go ahead with changes as fires ravage southern Europe
On the Spanish side of the border, the fire ravaged 2,200 hectares – 97 percent of them in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres – but Catalan authorities said late on Saturday that it was stable and would be completely extinguished during the week.
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 after a wildfire entered the Sierra de Espadan national park, home to a significant cork oak forest.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
