Families have relived how their tranquil holidays in France turned into a race to escape raging wildfires.
Tourists told the BBC of emergency alerts in the middle of the night, desperate drives just metres from six-storey high flames and the sight of people flocking to beaches with their suitcases.
Huge forest fires in south-west France and central Spain have displaced more than 220,000 people, with the French military drafted in to help and the Spanish government declaring a national emergency.
Winds and continued heat are still helping to fan the flames with some tourists reporting smelling acrid smoke like a “bonfire” far outside the affected areas.
Flights to Bordeaux and Madrid, the closest cities to the blaze-hit regions, are currently not affected. Earlier on Saturday, a French foreign minister described the fires as a “tragedy” but urged tourists not to cancel their travel plans.
Among those caught up in the crisis is Zac Morrison, who arrived in Cap Ferret – a popular peninsula blanketed with pine trees 40 miles (65km) south-west of Bordeaux – on Thursday.
The 21-year-old from London, who is on holiday with 10 members of his family, woke up to two text alerts at 04:00 and 06:00 local time ordering him to evacuate “by all means necessary”.
