INTERNATIONAL: Wildfires raged across tinder-dry country in Portugal, Spain, France, Croatia and Turkey on Thursday, burning homes and threatening livelihoods, as much of Europe baked in a heat wave that has pushed temperatures into the mid-40Cs in some parts.

Nations across southern Europe - experiencing the second heat wave in as many months - have been hit by a series of wildfires over the last few weeks.

In Portugal's central Leiria district, tired firefighters battled to control blazes that have been fanned by strong winds. Footage from the area on Wednesday showed smoke darkening the sky and billowing across a highway, while flames licked around the roofs of houses in one small village.

"It is absolutely crucial we avoid new events because it leads to the exhaustion of firefighters and all others ... who are doing their best to control the situation."

"When it gets to the eucalyptus it's like an explosion," Antonio, an elderly resident of the nearby village of Gesteira, said as he anxiously watched the approaching flames.

Across the border in western Spain, a fire that started in the Extremadura region on Tuesday swept into Salamanca province in the region of Castile and Leon, forcing the evacuation of 49 children from a summer camp on Thursday.

Regional authorities said more than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of land had been burned.

On Croatia's Adriatic Coast, firefighting planes swooped low to dump water over burning forests, and troops were called in to help firefighters battling to contain three major wildfires around Zadar and Sibenek.

In southwestern France, more than 1,000 firefighters backed by nine water-bombing planes were battling two wildfires that started on Tuesday. The fires have already burnt 5,300 hectares, a figure that has doubled over the past 24 hours.

The other blaze, now the biggest with 2,900 hectares, was along the Atlantic Coast, close to the "Dune du Pilat" - the tallest sand dune in Europe - in the Arcachon Bay area, above which heavy clouds of dark smoke were seen rising into the sky.

Around 6,000 people were evacuated from surrounding campsites on Wednesday and another 4,000 people early on Thursday.

A wildfire also broke out near the southeastern town of Tarascon on Thursday, burning several hundred hectares of land.

Thousands of people were also evacuated from homes on Turkey's southwestern Datca peninsula, as a fire that started on Wednesday was fanned by strong winds overnight and threatened residential areas.

The forestry minister said the fire had been brought under control on Thursday after seven firefighting aircraft and 14 helicopters were deployed to contain it.

Scientists blame human-caused climate change for the increased frequency of extreme weather such as heatwaves, which have also hit parts of China and the United States in recent days.

A study in the journal Nature last week found the number of heatwaves in Europe has increased three-to-four times faster than in the rest of the northern mid-latitudes, such as the United States and Canada, due in large part to the jet stream air current splitting into two parts for longer periods.

^{PHOTO: VARIOUS OF WILDFIRES IN LEIRIA, CENTRAL PORTUGAL / SOUNDBITES WITH AFFECTED LOCAL RESIDENTS}