Europe is battling with devastating wildfires as scorching temperatures continue to rise, with France recording a sharp increase in heat-related deaths and Spain enduring one of its deadliest blazes in decades. At least four Brits are among 12 people killed after a wildfire swept through a remote expat community in southern Spain on Thursday night, with victims dying as they tried to escape the flames in cars and on foot.A further eight people were injured and 23 remain missing after the blaze broke out late on Thursday in Bedar, near Almeria, on the south-eastern coast of Spain. Some six Brits are among those unaccounted for, prompting British families to take to social media to plead for help in finding their missing loved ones.Bedar has one of the highest concentrations of Brits in Spain, according to a local journalist. Out of the 1,009 people living there, 447 are British nationals, according to statistics from 2022.Most victims died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions before attempting to flee, Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia's emergency services, said. The majority of those who lost their lives are believed to have been foreign nationals.Some tried to escape via a dry riverbed that 'turned into a death trap', Mr Sanz said, while the death toll is expected to rise as search operations continue. Flames and smoke rose from a wildfire in Spain's southern province of Almeria, which has claimed 12 lives People were evacuated from the municipality of El Pocico in Almeria, Spain, on FridayOfficials believe four of the victims were British after they were found in a burned-out right-hand-drive vehicle. 'Everything seems to indicate they're from Britain,' Mr Sanz said. However, they are yet to be formally identified. Meanwhile, seven people died after abandoning their vehicles and attempting to escape on foot.Dean Taylor, who splits his time between Spain and the UK, said he narrowly escaped the fires by taking back roads out of the area. 'It was quite terrifying,' he said. 'It's a very sad day, isn't it? It's devastating really.'The blaze was still burning on Friday afternoon as around 150 firefighters and 220 soldiers from Spain's military emergency unit battled to bring it under control. The cause of the fire has not been confirmed, but people who reported the fire claimed a fallen power line sparked a blaze that swept rapidly into a nearby forest. More than 7,900 acres of forest and farmland has already been destroyed, with difficult terrain and dry vegetation fuelling the flames - which Andalusia's regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno described as a 'ticking time bomb'.