British tourists caught up in a ‘catastrophic’ wildfire that ripped through a holiday hotspot in France today described their ‘terrifying’ bid to escape the flames that destroyed campsites and homes.

More than 3,000 terrified tourists and local residents fled for their lives from their holiday homes and campsites in the popular holiday region of Pyrenees-Orientales, southern France, as the wildfire swept through villages.

Britons have told how panicked families who had quickly packed their belongings and fled campsites in the commune of Saint-Andre in their cars became trapped in traffic jams after they realised they were in fact heading towards the quickly expanding flames of the wildfire.

Zak Dhabalia, 55, a retired British hedge fund manager who lives in the nearby village of Sorede and saw the flames come perilously close to his home, said it was an ‘extraordinary and terrifying experience for us all’.

Dhabalia, who lives with his French wife Sylvie Dhabalia, told MailOnline it was ‘terrifying’ to see how quickly the wildfire spread across the vineyards towards the campsites which were gutted by the flames, adding that he could hear gas canisters exploding at the site.

The former banker said that on a nearby road, panicked holidaymakers and locals who had tried to flee the fire in their cars ‘couldn’t move’ after some realised they were heading towards the fire.  

‘We were scared because we thought that if the wind changes we’d be packing our bags and making sure we had an available exit route,’ Dhabalia told MailOnline. 

‘What was scary was that on one of the roads, you had this massive blockage because people were turning their cars around as soon as they realised they were heading towards the fire – and the people who were already trying to get out, couldn’t move.’

The blazing wildfires have so far gutted scores of homes and destroyed a campsite in the nearby commune of Saint-Andre. Video shows the flames getting perilously close to campsites, where children can be heard screaming in terror.

The flames have ripped through 500 hectares of land and Dhabalia described how the flames quickly spread towards the campsite within just 15 minutes – too quickly for firefighters to be able to contain the fire before it ravaged the holiday homes. Thousands of people have now been evacuated to temporary accommodation.

‘I have to say it’s been quite an extraordinary and terrifying experience for us all. I was initially driving back to my property in the morning and I could see that the fire was really raging quite close to the junction near the village where I live,’ Dhabalia said. 

‘Over the course of about 15 minutes, I could see the speed and rapidity of the fire spreading across the vineyards and headings towards the campsites which were later destroyed and evacuated. I started hearing explosions as well – basically gas cannisters going of on some of the properties and mobile homes in the area.’ 

Dhabalia said his family were lucky and didn’t end up evacuating, but his friends and neighbours were ‘in tears’ as they had to flee from their homes, worried that their livelihoods would be destroyed. For many, they returned to the blackened shells of their homes.

‘Everyone was shocked by this fire. Elderly people were panicking, they said they had never seen a fire like that this close to the village,’ Dhabalia said. ‘We are still in a state of shock about what happened, it’s a sobering experience.’

Harrowing photographs show the extent of the damage caused by the wildfires, with the gutted remains of homes seen in Saint-Andre. Cars were incinerated and a campsite was destroyed by the blaze.

More than 3,000 tourists have now been evacuated from their holiday campsites across the region to temporary accommodation in town halls as the blaze swept through the villages close to the seaside resort of Argeles. 

The local mayor described how she saw dozens of ‘families with flabbergasted children’ walk through the doors, some still in their swimsuits as they were unable to reach their campsite due to flames.

‘Our town is hard hit, there is a lot of damage,’ the mayor of Saint-Andre told France Bleu on Tuesday. ‘The village is burned on both sides, a third has been hit by the fire.’

British tourist Dave Robson, who had been on holiday in the nearby Argeles-sur-Mer, shared footage on social media of planes dropping retardant and water onto the wildfires one after the other. 

He wrote on Facebook: ‘It seems you can’t take a holiday in Europe these days without getting caught in a wildfire. Smoke in the town, fuel stores going off like bombs and firefighter planes lining up down the valley.’  

The wildfire broke out on Monday afternoon and the blaze spread rapidly near the villages of Saint-Andre, Sorede and the seaside resort of Argeles due to the ‘extremely hot weather, drought and strong winds of up to 180km/hr’. 

Officials said the wildfire has been contained but remains dangerous as about 450 firefighters backed up by surveillance aircraft today continued to battle the flames south of the city of Perpignan. 

‘The fire has been contained,’ senior regional official Rodrigue Furcy told local radio, but the worst affected area was ‘under close surveillance and firefighters were still battling the blaze’.

Seventeen firefighters had sustained light injuries and one was admitted to hospital after a fall ‘but the good news is that there have been no fatalities’, Furcy continued. 

Thirty houses had been damaged, along with a warehouse and a campsite, with thousands of people evacuated to temporary accommodation. 

Roussillon Bernadette Michalak Guimbert, the deputy mayor of Argeles-sur-Mer, told France Bleu that she saw families arrive in the town hall ‘in swimsuits’ because ‘they were returning from the beach or from walks and they could not reach their campsite’. 

Guimbert added that among the evacuees are ‘many families with flabbergasted children’. She said they woke up this morning ‘very dazed’ after they were forced to flee the flames of the roaring wildfire.  

Several roads were also closed and the train service from Perpignan to the Spanish border was suspended for several hours.

Bordering on Spain, the Pyrenees-Orientales region has been affected worse than any other French region by a devastating drought.

Last week, firefighters battled another wildfire near the southwestern city of Bordeaux that forced around 8,000 people to flee their homes and holiday villas.

Authorities in Spain’s northern Basque Country region said France had stopped freight trucks from crossing the border at Irun due to the fire.

More than 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) have burned in the Gironde region and the neighboring Landes. 

The Gironde region was hit last month by major wildfires that forced the evacuation of more than 39,000 people, including residents and tourists.

France is this week in the midst of its fourth heat wave of the year as the country faces what the government warned is its worst drought on record. 

Temperatures in the south of the country are expected to reach up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Wildfires have ravaged countries across southern Europe this summer, forcing thousands to be evacuated and thousands more to cancel their holidays.

Greece, Italy, Algeria and Tunisia combined lost more than 1,350 square kilometers (520 square miles) to blazes that affected 120,000 people in late July, according to European Union estimates.

Last week, a series of wildfires ripped through Portugal and neighbouring Spain as temperatures soared to over 44C, forcing the evacuation of thousands of holidaymakers from villages and campsites. 

The popular holiday island of Rhodes – known for its sparkling beeches and ancient Greek sites – was also ravaged by wildfires for 11 days last month. 

After thousands of people were evacuated during the height of travel season, Rhodes is weighing how the crisis will affect its vital tourism sector, which fuels most of its economy and some 20 per cent of Greece’s.

It’s the same for other Mediterranean destinations such as Italy and Spain, where the tourism sector is also being hit by heat waves and wildfires.

Climate scientists say heat waves are more intense, more frequent and longer because of climate change — and coupled with droughts have made wildfires harder to fight.

They say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

‘Climate change kills,’ Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said last month during a visit to the Extremadura region, the site of three major blazes. ‘It kills people, it kills our ecosystems and biodiversity.’ 

Wildfires raging through Europe this summer have so far burned the second-largest area on record, even though the region is only halfway through its typical fire season, according to data from the European Union’s Joint Research Centre. 

Victor Resco de Dios, professor of forest engineering at Spain’s Lleida University, said the large fires France and Portugal suffered in early July were ‘extremely unusual’ and demonstrated how climate change is causing the fire season to start earlier and last longer. 

‘Today’s fires in the Mediterranean can no longer be extinguished… large fires are getting bigger and bigger,’ he said. 

Southern European countries such as Portugal and Greece experience fires most summers, but hotter temperatures are pushing severe wildfire risk north, with Germany, Slovenia and the Czech Republic among those hit this season.

In stark contrast to the wildfires seen in France, Spain, Greece, Croatia and southern Italy in recent weeks, northern Italy and Scandinavia have been hit by devastating floods and storms.

In the Italian town of Bardonecchia, near Turin in the Val di Susa valley, a ‘tsunami of mud’ crashed through the streets on Sunday, sending people fleeing for their lives. 

Dramatic video shows the churning river of mud forming a huge wave as it burst its banks and slammed into a street following heavy rain.

Horrified residents and tourists were sent running for their lives as the ‘mud tsunami’ smashed through a gate and sent debris flying towards them on Sunday evening.

Further video shows a thick wall of mud thundering down the river banks that pass through the Alpine town, blanketing cars with debris.

Rescuers desperately searched for five people believed to have been missing following the mudslide but authorities later said all residents had been accounted for and there were no victims. 

Italy has been faced with a series of deadly floods and storms in recent months, with 13 people killed in May after a devastating flood tore through homes in the popular holiday region of Emilia-Romagna. 

Desperate families, including young children and the elderly, had to clamber on to their roofs in the tourist hotspot as they waited anxiously for rescuers to reach them in helicopters.  

In the city of Cesena locals were forced to swim through the submerged streets, past sunken cars and floating furniture, to reach higher ground.

Last month, severe storms also battered the north of Italy, killing two woman and a 16-year-old girl scout. 

The overnight storm on July 25 saw roofs torn off and hundreds of trees uprooted in Milan. Roads were blocked and cars were smashed by the debris.

Two women were killed in the northern Monza and Brescia provinces after being crushed by falling trees, while a teenager was seriously injured when he was hit by a falling branch in the Veneto region.

In the area around nearby Brescia, a 16-year-old girl on a scout camp was killed when a tree fell on her tent, according to Italian news agencies. 

Firefighters evacuated the other members of the camp, taking them to a sports hall nearby, ANSA said. 

Tourist attractions also bore the brunt of the bad weather, as the Sforza Castle was shut after some tiles were brought down and rain was heavy enough to penetrate the glass-vaulted Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan’s famed shopping arcade. 

Elsewhere in Europe, a 135mph tornado toppled a construction crane in Switzerland last month, killing one person, while ripping roofs off buildings. Storms also lashed France and Germany with torrential rain flooding streets in Berlin. 

And last week, heavy rains triggered landslides and flooding across southern Norway and Sweden, forcing communities to evacuate.

The Norwegian dam at the Braskereidfoss hydroelectric power plant, on the Glåma, Norway’s longest and most voluminous river, burst on Wednesday after days of rain. 

It caused devastating floods, with footage showing wooden cabins floating down overflowing rivers. One clip shows a mobile home crashing into a bridge on Norway’s Hemsilar river.

People were seen standing on the bridge as they watched caravans being swept away, crashing into the bridge and being crushed under the weight. 

A British family left destitute by the wildfires ravaging Rhodes have told of their ‘rags to riches’ story thanks to the kindness of the Greek people.

Dean and Charlie Scoffins and their two teenage daughters were forced to sleep on a school playground after they were evacuated from their Jet2 hotel in Pefkos in the south of the island at 3am as the flames grew close.

The family from Grantham, Lincs, could not find any space at the sprawling basketball stadium that was used as an emergency shelter over the weekend and were stranded without shade in the 40-degree heat.

But after suffering ’36 hours of hell’ the Scoffins were treated to a ‘Premiership footballer’s lifestyle’ when they were invited to bunk down on a £3.5 million catamaran by its tycoon owner – one of hundreds of acts of kindness by the people of Rhodes to their under-fire British guests.

Grateful Charlie Scoffins told MailOnline: ‘If it had not been for the Greek people we would still be sitting in the sun in that school playground.

‘As soon as we found ourselves in trouble it has been the people of Rhodes who have saved us.

‘They ferried us out of the danger zone, gave us food and water and found us this amazing place to stay.

‘I cannot thank the Greek people enough. They have done everything for us. I’m just so grateful to them.

‘The boat owners have given us three nights on their wonderful yacht. Jet2 did nothing.’

The family had enjoyed two days on the beach at the Eagle’s Nest Hotel in Pefkos when they received an evacuation alert on their phones at 11pm on Saturday night from the Greek government.

Unable to sleep Dean went for a walk along the road by the hotel to look for transport. There he discovered a Greek coach driver who had stayed up all night to ferry stranded holidaymakers to safety in the north of the island.

Dean, a bricklayer, told MailOnline: ‘There was no plan from the hotel staff about how to get us out, so I went for a walk to look for transport.

‘This coach came to a halt and I told the driver that my family were back at the hotel.

‘The driver reversed back for half a mile and waited while Charlie and the girls stuffed everything in the bags and ran down.

‘There was smoke everywhere and you could see the flames. The girls were getting really upset.

‘That coach driver was our saviour. No one was paying him. He was just driving around looking for people who needed help.’

The Scoffins were taken to Kleisto High School in Kallithea and offered food and water.

But the building was full and they were forced to bed down on the concrete playground.

The following day they were transferred to the island’s basketball stadium in Rhodes Town, which had become the main crisis centre.

Packed with stranded tourists the family had to make camp outside in the blazing heat.

But it was here that they were approached by local businessman Christoforos Charisis who told them owners of luxury yachts in the Rhodes Marina were offering their boats as emergency accommodation.

Dean, 43, explained: ‘It was literally rags for riches for us.

‘We had had 36 hours of hell.

‘We were homeless, having to sleep outside at night and then endure 40 degrees without any shade during the day.

‘And then these kind people offered us to stay on their yacht.

‘We’ve gone from being destitute to enjoying a Premiership footballer’s lifestyle.

‘The crew have cooked for us and cared for us. They have been amazing. We cannot thank them enough.’

The family have now been able to enjoy the last few days of their holiday sunbathing on the beach, swimming in the sea and enjoying traditional restaurants – before flying home tonight.

Daughter Lucy, 18, told MailOnline: ‘My friends back home are so jealous. They don’t want to hear about the fire they want to fly to Rhodes to join me on the yacht!’

Sister Lottie, 15, added: ‘It’s great! We’ve got an ensuite bathroom and everything.’

Mr Charisis, who organised the yacht accommodation for the Scoffins and a dozen other British families, today tried to play down the islanders’ hospitality.

He told MailOnline: ‘Yes, the people of Rhodes helped the tourists who were in trouble. But we only treated them in the way we would like to be treated. This is our nature.

‘The whole island depends on tourism. This is not why everyone here is happy to help. But we want the English people to remember Rhodes in a good way. We want them to come back. We need them.’

Two more Odey funds frozen as beleaguered asset management firm is forced to prevent investors from fleeing

By Calum Muirhead For The Daily Mail

Updated: 17:40 EDT, 27 June 2023

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Russia has bombed residential buildings and evacuation points in Kherson as people fled their flooded homes, with shelling leaving three injured and at least one person dead, according to Ukraine.

The cruel bombardment by Vladimir Putin’s forces comes as the region deals with devastating flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-held territory, which Kyiv labelled a ‘terrorist act’ by Moscow.

Evacuation points – including the one visited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day – were reportedly targeted by shelling, with civilians, journalists and rescuers taking shelter and operations being put on hold.

‘The shelling began precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose homes were flooded,’ Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

It reiterated accusations that Russia has abandoned people in the territory it has occupied in the region, adding that it ‘continues to prevent Ukraine from saving the most valuable – human lives.’

Videos show terrified residents running for their lives as their homes, surrounded by floodwater, appear to come under attack. Further footage showed smoke rising from a water-logged town near what appears to be an evacuation boat.

Burning buildings were also filmed, with reports that fire and rescue crews were unable to reach bombed sites due to the high floodwaters. 

Volunteers with boats have shared footage from inside the flooded city, showing residents looking out of their dilapidated homes as they await rescue. 

One rescuer, Andry Boxer, posted videos on Instragram documenting missions he carried out on a small motor boat, helping to save people as well as helpless pets.

Among those he helped to evacuate was an elderly man, who had suffered a severe injury and had blood streaming out of his head. The cause of his injury is unknown.

As artillery fire rang out over Kherson, rescue workers were seen taking shelter wherever they could, halting their crucial work. 

In a video shared by Sky’s Alex Crawford, who is on the ground in the city, rescuers and civilians are seen running in panic as they could hear of shelling. 

‘There are some civilians wounded and dead as a result of Russian shelling in the centre of Kherson, the number is being clarified,’ military spokesman Sergiy Sergeyev said earlier this afternoon. At least three people were wounded, police said. 

Moscow has itself blasted Kyiv for what it said were attacks on rescue workers in Russian-held territory on the east bank of the Dnieper river.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘The difficulty is that in a lot of places they [the rescuers] are forced to work in conditions of ongoing shelling from Ukraine, and this complicates their work.’

Kyiv also accused Moscow of hampering the evacuation effort with shelling yesterday.

‘Evacuation continues. Under fire!’ President Zelensky said. ‘Russian artillery continues to fire, no matter what. Savages.

‘Our military and special services are rescuing people as much as it is possible, despite the shelling.’

Routes out of the flooded city were bombed today shortly after Ukrainian President Zelensky was seen at an evacuation point in the city earlier today.

The devastation caused by the dam breach was reflected in the sombre expression of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as he visited the region today, where thousands continue to flee their homes.

The battle-hardened leader appeared uncharacteristically emotional as he took in the scale of the flooding – described as Europe’s worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl.

Close to 20,000 people have been rescued from the resulting deluge, Kyiv confirmed last night. Another 40,000 face evacuation as streets across dozens of settlements have turned into rivers.

As Ukrainians continue to be evacuated from affected areas, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said on Russian state TV that five people have died.

Moscow-backed mayor Vladimir Leontyev said those who had died were among seven local residents declared missing following the dam collapse. The two others were found, he said, and efforts were being made to evacuate them.

Chilling aerial photographs show houses submerged by the high water, with people’s homes, livelihoods, belongings and pets now abandoned.

Rescuers were using boats and amphibious vehicles to pluck people from flooded areas.

President Zelensky thanked the brave rescuers and volunteers and said ‘our task is to protect lives and help people as much as possible’. 

One woman, Tetiana Omelchenko, 65, said she had waited two days for evacuation from her block of flats and had to climb through a broken window to reach a rescue boat.

‘In my building, the water has reached the third floor and there are still people in there,’ she said.

An employee at Kherson’s meteorological agency, Lora Musiyan, waded into the water to mark the current level: 5.33 metres above the norm.

‘That’s the height of two storeys – you can only survive this on a roof,’ she said.

The Russian state-owned news agency Tass, citing emergency services in the occupied region, said that up to 14,000 homes have been flooded and nearly 4,300 people evacuated. 

Twenty-three people were seen by doctors of which 21 were hospitalised, medical services reported. 

President Zelensky also met with advisors to consider how to move forward following the widespread flooding.

He wrote on Telegram: ‘Many important issues were discussed. The operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organization of life support for the flooded areas,’ he said on his Telegram channel.

‘Also, the prospects for restoring the region’s ecosystem and the operational military situation in the man-made disaster area.’

The destruction of the dam on the Dnieper River, which separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, is set to displace tens of thousands of people.

Writing on twitter, the deputy foreign minister Andrij Melnyk compared the flood to the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant that sent a radioactive cloud across Europe. 

‘The worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster. Only this time Moscow deliberately used this weapon of mass destruction against the Ukrainians. Who else wants to negotiate with Putin?’ he wrote. 

The cause of the blasts which destroyed the dam are not yet clear, however Ukraine warned late last year that Russian forces had mined the dam as they retreated from Kherson

Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company said the Kakhovka plant was destroyed by an explosion in the engine room – suggesting it was attacked from within rather than by external strikes. 

Ukrainian authorities said 17,000 people were being evacuated and a total of 24 villages had been flooded.

‘Over 40,000 people are in danger of being flooded,’ Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said, adding that 25,000 more people needed to be evacuated on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnieper.

‘The evacuation will continue tomorrow and in the coming days – by bus and train,’ presidential adviser Oleksiy Kuleba said late on Tuesday.

Terrifying video shows houses being swept away and entire towns submerged by the deluge. 

Village streets and fields near to the dam have been swamped by flooding as a Russia-installed local mayor warned that the water level would continue to rise for another 72 hours and claimed he expected 40ft high floods in some places. 

Last October, Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at the dam, warning that its destruction would spur a new wave of refugees into Europe.