Europe wildfires: more than 300,000 flee homes and holiday accommodation as fires rage

Hello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the wildfires spreading through parts of Spain and France. Thousands crowded into emergency shelters in France and Spain on Sunday after wildfires drove more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and holiday accommodation. The blazes have destroyed houses, displaced people on a massive scale and triggered one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in France, with major fires still burning in both countries. One person was killed in eastern Spain and fresh evacuations were ordered around the French city of Bordeaux and the Spanish capital Madrid as authorities warned of another difficult night. Families slept on camp beds in exhibition halls and gymnasiums after fleeing walls of smoke and flames that swept through forests and tourist areas, leaving residents and holidaymakers uncertain if they would be able to return. According to the Gironde fire service in France, the blaze generated a rare “pyro cumulonimbus” cloud, creating its own winds and whirlwinds and making it “erratic and unmanageable”, said firefighter Capt. Nicolas Braz. Spanish authorities meanwhile ordered new evacuations near Toledo, south-west of Madrid.