A major forest fire has been raging since Monday near the famous port of Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera in southern France leading to thousands of people to evacuate, including tourists.
Thousands of people were evacuated and about 750 firefighters are battling the blaze which continues to rage.
The evacuations of residents and tourists took place in the hinterland of Cavalaire and Saint-Tropez, in particular around the villages of Grimaud and La Môle where many tourists were staying in campsites.
The prefecture of Var has confirmed the evacuation of several campsites and due to the high traffic around this time, asked not to obstruct the roads around the Gulf of Saint-Tropez to let emergency services work.
The fire had covered at least 3,500 hectares of forest.
The area is usually at risk of wildfires but, until Monday, it had been spared compared to several countries in recent weeks such as Greece, Italy, Algeria, Spain and Morocco.
According to the Prométhée data on forest fires in the French Mediterranean area, the fires in the four regions concerned so far during 2021 have reached 2,336 hectares, compared to 7,698 hectares during the whole of 2020.
The fire, which broke out on Monday near a rest station on a highway about 100 kilometers northeast of the coastal city of Toulon, engulfed 3,500 hectares of woodland in Mount Mor as of Tuesday morning, according to firefighters.
Last year, a fire ravaged 1,000 hectares in Marseille, where at least 2,700 people, including many tourists, had to be evacuated.
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