Thousands flee new wave of European wildfires

Wildfires across southern Europe forced thousands of people to flee their homes and prompted authorities to ban spectators from yesterday’s Tour de France stage that was threatened by one inferno.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have devastated more than 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of land — an area nearly three times the size of Manhattan — across Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and other countries.

The fires are spreading as temperatures rise again — already reaching 43C in Spain — in a continent still scarred by the aftermath of heatwaves in May and June that have been blamed for thousands of deaths.