Authorities have evacuated thousands of residents from dozens of villages. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Wildfires have ravaged more than 450,000 hectares of land across the Iberian peninsula since the start of the year, setting records in a region particularly hard hit by intensive heatwaves and drought affecting southern Europe.

Deadly wildfires ravaging Spain have burnt the equivalent of nearly half a million football fields this year, setting a new record for the country, a European monitor said Monday.

Up to 20 major wildfires are burning in total, the majority in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia, while there are several blazes in neighbouring Portugal.

A heatwave is continuing to affect the Iberian Peninsula. Thousands of firefighters have been deployed to battle ongoing blazes and towns have been evacuated. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited affected regions to meet with the heads of emergency teams.

Spain's worst wave of wildfires on record spread to the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa mountains on Monday and prompted authorities to close part of the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

Raging wildfires in Spain spread to the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa mountain range on Monday, and authorities closed part of the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

Residents armed with garden hoses and buckets battled a wildfire threatening their village on Saturday in Villardevos, northwestern Spain. 'We have to go to the neighbours and help each other,' said Basilio Rodriguez,

A second volunteer firefighter has died after battling a wildfire in the northern Spanish province of Leon, while police arrested a man for allegedly starting a separate blaze as the country faced one of its worst summers for fires in 20 years.