More than 200,000 people flee or lock down as wildfires sweep France and Spain

Highly unpredictable' blaze forces evacuation of Cap Ferret on French coast and Spain declares national emergency

More than 200,000 people have fled or been ordered to lock down as huge wildfires swept Spain and France on Friday, prompting Madrid to declare a national emergency and the French authorities to order the total evacuation, by land and sea, of one of the country's best-known holiday spots.

Authorities in south-west France ordered the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast to be evacuated village by village" in the face of an intense, highly unpredictable" wildfire that has burned through more than 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) of forest.