FIRST WILDFIRES FATALITY IN SPAIN

MADRID, JULY 25 /SRNA–Reuters/ – Wildfires have claimed their first victim in Spain, the Spanish Ministry of Interior announced.

The statement reads the body of a man was found inside a car near Valencia.

Three wildfires in the Madrid region, two of which merged on Friday, prompted Spanish authorities to declare a national state of emergency for the first time.

Spain's Civil Protection Service said it expects four more firefighting aircraft to arrive during the day - two from Italy and two from Greece.

Firefighting planes from the Netherlands and Portugal have already been deployed to Spain.

Meanwhile, major wildfires in France have spread inland and are moving toward Bordeaux.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in both countries due to the fires, the latest natural disasters linked to prolonged drought and successive heatwaves that scientists say have been intensified by climate change.

In the part of France affected by the fires, the average air temperature in July reached 32.2°C /90°F/, which is 7.3°C /13.1°F/ above the average maximum recorded between 1961 and 1990.

"We expect a battle that will be long and extremely difficult," French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told the presss

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The French Armed Forces have been deployed to assist overstretched firefighting crews.

In the afternoon, an A400M military transport aircraft, the largest in the French fleet, joined the wildfire suppression efforts.