Sharjah24 – AFP: French firefighters battled to contain a raging wildfire near the glitzy Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez on Tuesday, with thousands of residents and holidaymakers forced to evacuate.
Roughly 1,000 firefighters were using high-pressure hoses, aircraft and helicopters in an attempt to control the flames, which began racing through the scrubland and trees of the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening.
"The coming hours will be absolutely decisive" for the firefighting effort, President Emmanuel Macron said during an early evening visit to first responders.
While Macron added that "the battle is ongoing and the fire has not yet been contained, stabilised," he said that the firefighters' courage had managed to "avoid the worst" with no casualties so far.
Eric Grohin, a colonel in the Var department firefighters, said the flames were regularly leaping gaps of up to 800 metres (900 yards), making it difficult to hem the blazes in.
Around 7,000 people have been evacuated from homes and campsites, the Var prefecture said, many to the safety of municipal buildings and schools.
Among them were 1,300 people staying at a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas down the coast from Saint-Tropez.
Many tourists could be still be seen enjoying the sunshine on the nearby Cote d'Azur beaches, however, as Canadair firefighting aircraft swooped in regularly to fill their tanks from the sea before returning to the smoking hills nearby.
Others loaded up their cars and headed for safety, leading officials to plead for people in secure areas to stay at home and avoid blocking roads used by the emergency services.
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