Around 1,800 people had to leave their homes in western Germany overnight as a wildfire spread nearby, officials said Friday, with helicopters and army equipment deployed to help battle the flames.
A district of the town of Huertgenwald near the Belgian and Dutch borders was evacuated after the fire expanded from 25 hectares (around 60 acres) to 300 hectares by Friday morning.
Residents were urged to "take only the most important personal items" with them as the fire draws nearer, a spokeswoman for the local district told AFP.
Around 300 emergency services personnel have been sent to try to put the fire out, the spokeswoman said, and two army tanks were also helping the effort.
One helicopter has been deployed with two more expected to join and firebreaks have been cut through the forest to stop the blaze spreading.
Many parts of Europe have experienced successive heatwaves and drought this summer, with wildfires breaking out across the continent, including in Germany.
The heatwave in late June saw Germany break its temperature record for three days in a row, hitting 41.7C.
Evacuation in France
A new wildfire in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of more than 500 people and burned 1,100 hectares (about 2,700 acres), officials said on Friday.
This summer southwest France has been ravaged by forest fires which advanced quickly because of tinderbox conditions worsened by a series of heatwaves.
A new fire broke out in the department of Landes on Thursday, with much of the country in the grip of a new heatwave.
Some 500 firefighters have been deployed to battle the blaze.
"The next fifteen hours will be decisive," prefect Gilles Clavreul told reporters.
Fire chief Arnaud Fabre said the fire was slowing down but he added he was concerned about potential flare-ups as the heat returns, with temperatures expected to reach 36C later Friday.
Around midnight, the flames were only a few hundred meters from Luglon, a small village that sits in the pine forest of the Landes de Gascogne nature park.
No homes have been destroyed.
On Friday morning, thick smoke blanketed the village in an opaque haze.
"We protected the houses. Everything held," a firefighter told one of the residents.
French officials are still taking stock of the damage caused by a series of fires, mainly in the southwest of France, including the largest wildfire since 1949 in the department of Gironde.