420 PEOPLE APPREHENDED ON SUSPICION OF STARTING FOREST FIRES

PARIS, AUGUST 10 /SRNA/ – French police have apprehended 420 people on suspicion of intentionally or through gross negligence causing forest fires that have burned nearly 120,000 hectares across the country, the Interior Ministry said.

Officials said that nine out of 10 forest fires in France are human-caused. The cases include suspected arson, as well as fires caused by discarded cigarette butts, barbecues, campfires and other irresponsible behaviour, RT reported.

France has been hit by successive heatwaves this summer, while extremely high temperatures have affected large parts of Europe.

President Emmanuel Macron described the forest-fire crisis as potentially the worst in the country since the Second World War.

Prolonged heat has dried out vegetation, allowing even small sources of fire to develop into rapidly spreading wildfires. At the height of the crisis, more than 224,000 people were evacuated.