France orders total evacuation of Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfire spreads

‘Intense and highly unpredictable’ blaze forces more than 40,000 people to flee popular holiday spot

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Authorities in south-western France have ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast by land and sea as an “intense and highly unpredictable” wildfire advances on one of the country’s best-known holiday spots.

Spain’s government has also taken the exceptional step of declaring a national emergency as a series of out-of-control wildfires ⁠threatened areas near Madrid, as extreme climate crisis-driven heat and drought persist in much of southern Europe.