Wildfires fanned by a renewed heatwave have swept through southern Europe, injuring at least nine people in Portugal and forcing evacuations across France, Greece and Spain. Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have consumed tens of thousands of hectares of forest and scrubland, as temperatures once again push beyond 40°C in parts of the Mediterranean region.

In Portugal, a fire that started on Thursday near Vouzela, southeast of Porto, has burned at least 12,000 hectares and left nine people injured, two of them seriously, according to the national civil protection authority. By Sunday, around 80 per cent of the perimeter was controlled, but reinforcements including 120 Spanish firefighters and water-bombing aircraft from Italy and Spain have been deployed. In Spain’s Catalonia region, a fire consumed 2,200 hectares near the Costa Brava, 97 per cent of it within the protected Gavarres natural area. Firefighters said the blaze had been stabilised but remained concerned about reactivations due to high temperatures and unburnt islands of vegetation; a man has been detained on suspicion of negligence. French authorities mobilised some 600 firefighters to contain a wildfire that has burnt more than 1,000 hectares at Trevillach, east of Perpignan, with a further 300 tackling a separate fire in the Drôme department. Roads were closed and emergency shelters opened, and the interior minister warned that the summer fire season had begun a month early.

In Greece, a fast-moving blaze on the outskirts of Thessaloniki engulfed a recycling plant, sending toxic black smoke across the country’s second-largest city and prompting evacuation alerts for three suburbs. Around 160 firefighters battled the fire overnight; a 76-year-old man was arrested for allegedly starting it by generating sparks from his vehicle. Fire service officials said about 85 per cent of Greek wildfires are caused by human negligence. The blaze came days after a separate fire in a nearby area killed a 12-year-old boy and his father.

The fires are unfolding as a heatwave brings extreme temperatures to western and southern Europe. Portuguese authorities warned of 44°C in some regions, while Spain’s Aemet weather service said the heat would last at least until Tuesday. The earlier June heatwave caused thousands of excess deaths: France reported more than 2,000 additional fatalities in one week, and Spain and Belgium each recorded over 1,000, according to health authorities. Scientists from World Weather Attribution concluded that such heat in June would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

As of Sunday evening, the fires in Spain and Portugal were partly stabilised, but authorities across the region warned that high temperatures and dry conditions would persist, with the heat expected to move northwards in the coming days. Judicial investigations into the causes of the blazes are under way in Spain and Greece, while European Union civil protection mechanisms have been activated to support Portugal.