Watch live as a military plane is deployed to tackle the “apocalyptic” wildfires across France on Saturday (25 July).
Over 280,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes as massive wildfires continue to rage across southwestern France and central Spain.
On Saturday officials ordered the evacuation of large parts of Bordeaux’s suburbs, including the areas of Le Haillan, Eysines and Merignac.
French president Emmanuel Macron has ordered the country’s army to help with the wildfires raging across the country after barely recovering from a record-breaking heatwave.
At least 500 military personnel were deployed on the ground on Friday, with hundreds more expected to join on Saturday to bring the total to more than 1,000.
A French foreign minister has urged tourists not to cancel their travel plans despite unprecedented wildfires in the country’s south west.
“The fires which are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before,” French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday.
European Union countries have sent assistance to France as the country struggled to battle raging wildfires that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The support includes helicopters, planes and ground teams including 40 personnel from a Romanian forest fire team, two Portuguese and two Swedish Air Tractor planes, two German and one Czech and one Slovakian helicopter as well as four Swiss light helicopters and 30 ground personnel.
