Forest fires ravaging a region in southern France are threatening a stage of the Tour de France cycling race, with a decision to be taken later in the day over whether the stage goes ahead, a top local official said Sunday. The decision over the running of stage three of the race will be taken "by the end of the day" after being discussed in the afternoon, said Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, the prefect -- the top Paris-appointed official -- of the Eastern Pyrenees department. The fire currently burning in the area has already swept across approximately 1,500 hectares of land and required the mobilisation of some 700 firefighters. It is located about 70 kilometres (43.5 miles) from Les Angles, where riders late Monday afternoon are due to finish the third stage of the event which is set to start in Granollers in Spain. Read moreFive 2026 Tour de France key stages to watch out for The prefect has also ordered the closure of the main road that provides access -- notably from the coast -- to the route of Monday's stage due to the fire. "The fire has flared up again -- all resources are being mobilised to contain it," added Regnault de la Mothe. Fires hit southern Europe Residents were forced to flee their homes overnight after wildfires tore through southern Europe on Sunday with hundreds of firefighters deployed to contain the infernos. The fires have devastated more than 19,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land -- an area more than twice the size of Manhattan -- across Portugal, Spain, Greece and France with temperatures predicted to reach 40C in places. The blazes come shortly after a heatwave in June, one of Europe's worst, during which thousands of excess deaths were registered and which would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said. With the mercury set to rise again in the coming days, authorities expressed alarm that the annual summer wildfire season had started a month early. Read moreFrance records 2,025 excess deaths in June heatwave "Climate change is here, we are living the consequences and it is only the start of July," said French fire service Colonel Eric Belgioino as he appealed to people near the Pyrenees inferno to take precautions to avoid starting fires. "The season is going to be long for the soldiers fighting fires. You have to help us," he pleaded. Poisonous cloud In Greece, flames set off by a forest fire ripped through two factories in Thessaloniki in the north of the country, forcing authorities to evacuate the surrounding area. Thick black smoke pouring out of a recycling plant and a neighbouring oil treatment complex spread across Greece's second city. Authorities warned householders to keep their windows closed because of the risk of poisoning. In Spain, a fire near the northeastern Costa Brava coast burned more than 2,200 hectares in two days and firefighters said their efforts would be "complicated" by rising temperatures and the many "smoking hotspots" within the fire's perimeter. In Portugal, emergency services said they had controlled "80 percent" of a wildfire that has devastated some 13,000 hectares of forest and scrub land in the north of the country. Major fires also destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest, vineyards and scrub land on the Croatian island of Hvar and at Tale in Albania, authorities said. Regions across Portugal, Spain and southern France have stepped up heat alerts for the coming days. On Monday the latest heatwave was expected to move north, with forecasters saying it could last until next weekend. Following a two-week surge in temperatures in June, France said there had been more than 2,000 extra deaths than usual in just one week, while Spain and Belgium each reported more than 1,000. (FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)