Mass evacuations of at least 10,000 people have been ordered due to the spread of raging wildfires in the south of France.
Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed to battle fires near Bormes-les-Mimoses, in the country’s Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.
France earlier asked its EU neighbours for more help fighting the fires.
More than 15 square miles of land have burned along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.
“The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire,” a fire official was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
“It’s an area that doubles or triples its population in summer,” the official added.
One of the worst fires is raging in an area near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.
Hundreds of homes have been evacuated in Corsica.
Evacuated pic.twitter.com/7ab9v1ntgJ
— Lisa Minot (@lisaminot) July 26, 2017
Overall, more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by water bombing aircraft have been trying to extinguish the flames since Monday.
At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation, officials say.
The Sun’s travel editor Lisa Minot, staying in a campsite in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, told the BBC she saw aircraft scooping up water from the sea and then going back “into the pool of black smoke” on the coast.
Local authorities had asked holidaymakers to stay on the beach as it was not safe to stay in the campsite, she said.
There were also reports that some campsites had already been destroyed by the blazes.
She tweeted that it was the first time in 42 years that the campsite had been evacuated.