Europe wildfires: ‘Difficult hours lie ahead’ in battle to contain fires, says Pedro Sánchez as more than 300,000 flee homes in France and Spain – as it happened

More than three hundred thousand people have fled their homes as wildfires tear across France and Spain, in what The Guardian calls one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations France has ever carried out. Spain's environment ministry has recorded thirty-two major forest fires so far this year, compared with just seven over the same period in twenty twenty-five, according to The Guardian's live coverage. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said difficult hours still lie ahead in the fight to contain the blazes. Scientists point to climate breakdown driving more frequent, more extreme fire weather across a continent warming at roughly twice the global average rate.

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