Bormes-les-Mimosas beach wildfire
© AFP/Getty ImagesAt least 10,000 people were forced to leave the beach at Bormes-les-Mimosas on Tuesday night.
New fires keep breaking out in the south of France and in central Portugal as tourists flee in the thousands.

Firefighters, who have now been battling the flames for four days in France, said that while they were getting the inferno under control, new blazes keep breaking out.

The situation is also said to be improving slightly in central Portugal, where fires raged across large areas of tinder-dry forest on Wednesday.

But the blazes in the country have already left more than 60 people dead.

France wildfire
© AFP/Getty ImagesSmoke billows out from the forest as people watch from the beach in the south of France.
More than 3,000 firefighters - which is more than a quarter of Portugal's total - helped to bring the fires under control.

They focused their efforts on the biggest blaze, which was in Serta, in the Castelo Branco region.

A village of 2,000 people was evacuated on Wednesday after fast-moving flames licked at its outskirts.

However, brave firefighters said the situation was under control less than 24 hours later.

Patricia Gaspar, spokeswoman for the civil protection authorities, said: 'The weather is still against us and we remain alert even in the areas where the fires have been brought under control.'

Macao wildfires
© AFP/Getty ImagesThe wildfires in Macao, central Portugal, have raged for days
In the French village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, near beaches popular with tourists on the Cote d'Azur, fires that led to the evacuation of 10,000 people overnight Tuesday were largely extinguished.

'The fire is not completely under control but we are winning the fight,' said Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Bernier, the civil security officer leading the emergency effort in the village.

'Things are going in the right direction but new fires are starting caused by gusts of wind.'

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe visited an emergency shelter in Bormes-les-Mimosas on Wednesday, and paid tribute to the bravery of the firefighters who have been relentlessly tackling the blaze.

More than 6,000 French troops, soldiers and civil security officials are currently involved in efforts to put out the flames, backed up by 19 planes that have made more than 500 drops of water on the burning trees and bushes.
Portugal wildfires
© Getty ImagesPortugal has deployed more than a quarter of all its firefighters to deal with the wildfires.
'It is an extremely intense use of both material and human resources,' Philippe said.

Italy has also responded to France's pleas for help by sending a water-bombing plane. It got to work on Thursday.

More than 7,000 hectares of pine forest and bushes have so far been burned in southern France and on the island of Corsica.

Of those tourists forced to flee, 1,500 spent a second night in emergency accommodation centres in Bormes-les-Mimosas and hundreds of people chose to sleep on the beach rather than return to their campsites.

Miguel Goncalves, a 30-year-old Portuguese tourist who spent the night on the beach, said: 'We had not planned for this, but it is not too serious. The most important thing is not to be in danger.'
Bormes-les-Mimosas wildfire
© ABACA/PASmoke rising up from a forest by the beach in Bormes-les-Mimosas.
In the neighbouring Bouches-du-Rhone region, three major fires were also under control or being dampened down on Thursday, firefighters told AFP.

Authorities remained on high alert, fearing that new blazes could start in the hot, dry conditions, fanned by the strong Mistral wind.

'In such dry conditions, we really fear that fires could start again,' one firefighter said.

The population of the Cote d'Azur swells massively in July and August as millions of tourists flood in.

But this summer the area is experiencing particularly hot and dry weather.

The scorching heat has combined with a drop-off in farming in the area since the 1970s, which allowed forests and wild areas of bush to proliferate, and an increase in the number of homes, roads and powerlines, to make the region especially fire-prone.

Authorities are also investigating whether some of the blazes were started deliberately.