Blaze near Paris burns on as Europe heats up

Waterbombing aircraft skimmed the river Seine as firefighters struggled to contain a forest blaze south of Paris raging into a third day on Tuesday amid a spreading heatwave that has left swathes of Europe primed for more wildfires.

As France battled flames, the third bout of extreme heat this season that is also affecting Britain and Spain continued its progression into Italy, where authorities were bracing for temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in Sardinia this week.

According to the Reuters Climate Monitor, the average high of temperatures across Western Europe was 29.4 C on Tuesday, 6.3 C higher than the seasonal average high for July 14 recorded between 1961 and 1990. The difference was most pronounced in Belgium and France, with seasonal highs deviating by as much as 9.4 C and 9.1 C.

Scientists say climate change is making such events more frequent and intense, leaving forests and scrubland across the continent primed to burn.

More than 10,000 excess deaths were recorded across Europe and Britain in the last two record-breaking heatwaves in May and late June, with scientists saying the only credible reason for the unusually high toll was heat-related.

In Spain, authorities continued work to identify victims of last week's deadly forest fire in the popular holiday area of Almeria, which killed at least 13 people, mostly foreign nationals, and left 10 missing.

French firefighters battled through the night to tackle the blaze that tore through the historic forest of Fontainebleau, home to one of France's best-known royal palaces. At least two people were arrested on suspicion of having started the fire.

A local French official said two blazes around the Fontainebleau forest were still progressing, with the main blaze having scorched 1,600 hectares and another one nearby 450 hectares, but that weather conditions had improved.

"The wind has stopped, which is a considerable help," Pierre Ory, the local prefect, told Franceinfo TV. "We have set a reasonable goal of stopping the fires' progress by the end of the day."