Twelve people were killed in a wildfire in Almeria in southern Spain, with 150 firefighters working to put out the blaze, the Emergency Agency of Andalucía said early on Friday.
Minister of the Presidency, Health, and Emergencies Antonio Sanz called the fire “the most devastating fire to date in our region” and described the situation as an “unprecedented tragedy”.
Earlier, there were reports of six deaths from the wildfire.
“Our deepest condolences to the families of the six people who lost their lives in the Los Gallardos and the affection from all of us to the municipalities affected by the fire,” Juanma Moreno, the leader of Spain’s southern Andalusia region wrote in a post on X.
Los Gallardos is a municipality of the Almería province in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia.
The blaze comes after a wildfire burning out of control in southern France earlier this week forced the evacuation of over 10,000 people from two dozen small towns and villages near the Spanish border.
The blaze injured 16 people, including four firefighters, and scorched some 4,600 hectares (11,367 acres) in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, local prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a post on X.
A firefighter died while battling a blaze in the Savoie region in the French Alps.
The European Commission has pre-positioned a record 777 firefighters from 14 European countries in high-risk areas across Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.
Early summer heatwaves across western Europe in May and June have parched vast areas of land, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year.
Europe is warming at more than twice the global average, the World Meteorological Organisation has said, making prolonged heat episodes increasingly likely.
Portugal and France activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism over the weekend due to wildfires burning simultaneously and scorching thousands of hectares.
The Trevillach wildfire in France’s Pyrenees-Orientales has burned 4,900 hectares (12,108acres).
Police arrested an employee of a company contracted by Catalonia’s regional government who is suspected of having sparked the wildfire by using an angle grinder at the side of a road.
