Sawt Falasteen - Thousands flee raging wildfires in southern Europe

Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have devastated more than 19,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land -- an area more than twice the size of Manhattan -- across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece.

And temperatures are on the rise again, predicted to reach 40C in parts of a region still suffering the aftermath of a recent record-breaking heatwave.

In southwestern France near the city of Perpignan, 700 hundred firefighters backed by special aircraft battled to control a "gigantic" blaze spreading in a hard-to-reach remote area, with more than 10,000 local residents evacuated.

Fanned by wind, intense heat and exceptionally dry air, the fire has nearly tripled in size since early Sunday, devouring 4,600 hectares and leaving a firefighter and a resident injured, local authorities said.

"The fire came within 300 metres of the houses. We were taken aback by how fast it spread, it was staggering -- bordering on panic," said Patrice, a 53-year-old resident of the village of Trevillach, who did not wish to give his surname.

"We started seeing smoke around 10:30 pm, then it kept coming closer and closer. Someone from the town hall knocked on our door around 1:00 am to tell us to leave," said Charlotte Pignol, 30, who was among the first to be evacuated from her home early on Sunday.

The blazes come shortly after a heatwave in June, one of Europe's worst, during which thousands of excess deaths were registered and which would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.

With the mercury set to rise again in the coming days, authorities expressed alarm that the annual summer wildfire season had started a month early.

"Climate change is here, we are living the consequences and it is only the start of July," said French fire service Colonel Eric Belgioino as he appealed to people near the Pyrenees inferno to take precautions to avoid starting fires.

"The season is going to be long for the soldiers fighting fires. You have to help us," he pleaded.

- Tour de France -

In France, officials announced that Monday's third stage of the Tour de France cycling race through the Pyrenees would take place without spectators who normally line the routes of the storied competition.

The stage, which on Monday will see cyclists ride from Spain into France, "will be limited to the passage of the riders only and the vehicles essential to organizing the race" on French territory, the regional prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe told reporters.

"The public is asked not to go near the route or to the finish area," he said.

"In other words, and I regret having to say this, it will be, in France at least, a stage of the Tour de France without spectators."

- Poisonous cloud -

In Greece, flames set off by a forest fire tore through two factories in Thessaloniki in the north of the country over the weekend, forcing authorities to evacuate the surrounding area and to warn households to keep their windows closed.

In Spain, a fire near the northeastern Costa Brava coast burned more than 2,200 hectares in two days and firefighters said their efforts would be "complicated" by rising temperatures and the many "smoking hotspots" within the fire's perimeter.

Elsewhere, major fires also destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest, vineyards and scrub land on the Croatian island of Hvar and at Tale in Albania, authorities said.

Regions across Portugal, Spain and southern France have stepped up heat alerts for the coming days.

On Monday the latest heatwave was expected to move north, with forecasters saying it could last until next weekend.

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X.AbuJaber--SF-PST