More than 10,000 people were evacuated in southwest France as forest fires spread

More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France, officials said on Thursday, after a rapidly spreading forest fire swept about 2,000 hectares of land west of the city of Bordeaux.
The fire is burning near the Arcachon Bay area, a popular tourist destination, while tourists staying in camping sites constitute the majority of the people who were evacuated.
Local authorities said that 500 firefighters are participating in efforts to control the fire, adding that the fire is raging intensely, but no injuries have been recorded so far.
The successive heat waves that struck Europe at the beginning of the summer, which many scientists attribute to climate change caused by human activities, led to temperatures rising to unprecedented levels in large areas of the continent.
Data show that forest fires have already destroyed areas in Europe this year, exceeding the annual average recorded over the past two decades, at a time when the continent, which is the fastest warming in the world, has witnessed three stifling, converging heat waves since the beginning of the year.