French authorities ordered the evacuation of 10,000 people as fires jumped around the Riviera for a third day.
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Curious onlookers survey the scene of total devastation after wildfires broke out overnight in southern France.
French authorities ordered the evacuation of 10,000 people as fires jumped around the Riviera for a third day.
Most of those evacuated were residents, who were given shelter in local gymnasiums.
“We were well received, they offered food but we had no appetite,” said one distressed resident. “We took a few belongings quickly, we closed the house and we left,” added another. “We were afraid for our house.”
The blaze was the latest of several wind-whipped fires that are threatening residential areas on a peninsula west of St Tropez destroying more than five thousand hectares of land and injuring over 20 rescue workers.
The situation now appears to be under control at La Croix Valmer, in the Var region and at Artigues but not far from Marseille a new blaze is threatening the village of Carro.
In Corsica fires have destroyed more than two thousand hectares of scrubland and a new water dropping plane has arrived on the island.