FRANCE’S government sounded the alarm today about the growing risk of forest fires because of climate change, as hundreds of firefighters in the country’s parched south wrestled with the biggest woodland-destroying blaze so far this year.

The fire erupted on Sunday and burned more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of land along the Mediterranean coast, and spread across the border into north-east Spain.

On a visit to the zone earlier today, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said: “The fire season is starting early because of climate warming.”