FRANCE’S biggest wildfire this summer spread quickly today in a Mediterranean region near the Spanish border, leaving one person dead, authorities said.

About 2,000 firefighters and several water aircraft battled the blaze that broke out on Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region, a rural, wooded area that is home to wineries.

The wildfire remained “very active” today and weather conditions were unfavourable, the local administration said in a statement.

One person died in their home, nine others were injured, including seven firefighters, and at least one person was missing, the statement said.

The interior ministry said the fire had spread over 32,000 acres, an area larger than Paris.

Jacques Piraux, mayor of the village of Jonquieres, said all residents have been evacuated.

“It’s a scene of sadness and desolation,” he told broadcaster BFM TV after he visited this morning to assess the damage.

“It looks like a lunar landscape, everything is burned. More than half or three-quarters of the village has burned down. It’s hellish.”

Residents and tourists in nearby areas were requested to remain in their homes unless told to evacuate by firefighters. Two campsites were evacuated as a precaution.

Last month, a wildfire that reached the southern port of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, left around 300 people injured.

Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.