Eight Spanish villages evacuated due to forest fires
The fire in the region has destroyed around 9,000 hectares on the Sierra de la Culebra mountain range
Around 600 residents from eight villages in the Spanish province of Zamora were brought to safety as forest fires in different parts of the country continued to rage on Friday.
The fire in the region has destroyed around 9,000 hectares on the Sierra de la Culebra mountain range, according to broadcasters RTVE.
Some 220 members of the fire brigade and the civil defence were deployed on Friday to fight the flames in Zamora, near the border with Portugal. Several country roads have been closed since Thursday.
Experts say the drought, the extreme heatwave that has been going on for several days with temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, and very strong winds are fanning the wildfires.
Larger communities, however, are not threatened by the flames for the time being, they said.
Fires in Catalonia
Four major forest fires were raging in Catalonia in north-eastern Spain on Friday, which together had already destroyed around 3,000 hectares of forest.
On Friday, all 17 regions, the country's autonomous communities, were warned of the danger of forest fires, including the Balearic Islands.