Published 03.44
Hundreds of firefighters battled a fire in the departments of Hérault and Aude in southern France on Wednesday.
By evening, the fire had covered an area of at least 800 hectares, which corresponds to an area larger than 20 pieces of Old Town in Stockholm.
Temperatures of over 30 degrees, strong gusts of wind and dry vegetation have made extinguishing work challenging. Over 200 people have been evacuated.
– The smoke was so dense, so suffocating that the firefighters urged us to leave, says 99-year-old Danielle, who was evacuated, to the AFP news agency.
