Wildfires force evacuations across southern Europe

Massive wildfires continued to rage across parts of southern Europe on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in France and Spain, threatening communities near major cities and prompting international firefighting assistance as authorities warned that strong winds and extreme weather could further complicate efforts to contain the blazes.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez acknowledged that "difficult hours" lay ahead in the battle against the country's wildfires but said firefighters had made encouraging progress overnight in slowing the ad-vance of flames around Madrid.

Speaking during a visit to the fire-hit Avila province, Sanchez said the latest assessment indicated that the previous night had been "very positive" in terms of containing the fires and supporting firefighting opera-tions, despite forecasts of challenging weather conditions.

Spain has been battling several major wildfires simultaneously. Around 75,000 people have been evac-uated from areas around Madrid and the eastern province of Castellon in the Valencia region, while au-thorities have ordered another 30,000 residents to remain indoors because of smoke and the advancing flames.

The largest fires have swept through the central provinces of Avila, Madrid and Toledo, where more than 45,000 hectares have been burned.

In eastern Spain, another blaze has scorched more than 4,300 hec-tares in Castellon and spread into the Sierra de Espadan Natural Park, an area covered by extensive pine forests and cork oak woodlands.

Valencia regional leader Juanfran Perez described the Castellon fire as "out of control", saying adverse weather conditions were making it extremely difficult for firefighters to contain the blaze.