"It has been a horrendous fire, a brutal one - it's a monster that has run over us," said a Spanish mayor, describing the devastation left behind by the flames.

Fires displace people on massive scale and trigger one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in France

Over 300,000 people have evacuated as relentless wildfires engulf regions in France and Spain, fueled by strong winds and soaring temperatures, complicating containment efforts.