Pedro Sánchez says Spain is suffering effects of climate crisis as firefighters battle wildfires in France

Windy conditions on Saturday night hampered efforts to extinguish the blaze in the Gironde region of south-western France – which has consumed an area four times the size of Paris and caused nearly 220,000 people to be evacuated.

In Spain , fires west of Madrid were being brought under control, but Sánchez spoke on Sunday of “difficult hours”.

Weather forecasters say another heatwave could hit France from Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40C in some areas.

Wildfires have forced about 375,000 people to flee their homes in France and Spain.

In France nearly 260,000 have been forced to flee, while in neighbouring Spain 116,000 have been evacuated this week.

Bordeaux’s mayor, Thomas Cazenave, described the Gironde blaze as being “at the gates of the metropolitan area”, between 15 and 20 miles (25-30km) from the city itself, which has a population of 268,000.

An evacuation of the city was not on the cards, he said.

The fire situation in Gironde remained “broadly stable overnight” with no major developments, the local authority said on Monday.

“Security and emergency services remain fully mobilised and are continuing their operations on the ground,” the statement said.

Nearly 260,000 people have been evacuated across France as a whole, including 36,000 ordered to leave another wildfire zone in the Landes region farther south earlier this week.

Sophie Brocas, the prefect of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which includes the Gironde, said that the highly unpredictable nature of this wildfire was a phenomenon never seen before in France.