Tourist tell of French fire terror
Tourists have spoken of their terror as forest fires have torn through the countryside in France, Portugal and Italy.
Retired teacher Ros Roberts, 64, from Ludlow, Shropshire, was with her husband Bruce in their caravan at Camp du Domaine on the Cote d'Azur.
Ros, who is a member of Ludlow French Twinning Association, said: "An alarm began to ring out, then cars came around with sirens and a tannoy telling everyone to move to the beach. We could see and smell the black smoke."
More than 10,000 holidaymakers and residents have been evacuated from properties as fires rage around Bormes-Les-Mimosas on the French Riviera.
Firefighters have been battling the destructive blaze for days which has seen thousands of holidaymakers evacuated.
French police have said the source of the fire was due to 'criminal activity' and confirmed they had arrested two suspected teenage arsonists in the south of France.
They are believed to have set fire to parched shrubland last Tuesday, causing a blaze to engulf more than 15 square miles of countryside.
Elsewhere, arrests have taken place in relation to other fires including in Peynier, near Aix-en-Provence, where a man was charged on Friday night. President of the Provence regional council, Renaud Muselier, told FranceInfo radio station that the fires were of 'criminal origin' and that the 'activity of arsonists' must be stopped.
Makeshift camps were set up on the Mediterranean's pristine beaches with many families sleeping under the stars to escape the danger of the fires.
Tourists described pine trees 'lit up like matches' as the tinderbox forests at the back of the Riviera went up in flames.
One said the night sky of southern France was 'like Dante's Inferno'. As the fires raged for a third day, leaving normally blue skies black with smoke, one local politician said: 'It is a disaster area. There is nothing left.'
Firefighters, backed by troops, civil security officials and the pilots of 19 specially equipped planes that have been dropping containers of water on flaming inland trees and bushes.
