Fires in southern France have forced authorities to temporarily close Marseille airport.
On Monday, July 8, massive forest fires broke out in the south of France. Due to the rapid spread of the fire, Marseille-Provence Airport, one of the busiest in the country, was temporarily closed.
The Independent reported this.
At least 168 firefighters and helicopters were called in to fight the blaze. The services urged residents of the prefecture not to open windows and doors, to stay at home and to avoid driving on the roads.
A representative of Marseille airport noted that there have been no takeoffs or landings at the airport since midday. Some flights have been redirected to other regional airports, in particular Nice and Nimes. The time for the airport to resume operations has not yet been determined.
According to BFM TV, strong winds are making the situation worse, particularly in the Le Pen-Mirabeau area, where evacuations have already been carried out. In the center of Marseille, residents can smell smoke, and some areas of the city are in a smoke screen.
Marseille-Provence Airport is the fifth busiest airport in France in terms of passenger traffic.
Let us recall that forest fires are raging in Turkey due to abnormal heat. In the Edemish district of Izmir province, the fire has already spread to residential buildings despite all efforts of firefighters to curb the destructive elements. As a result of the spread of the fire, an 81-year-old bedridden man, who was home alone, died.
We also wrote that in the east of the island of Crete, Greece, a large-scale forest fire continues, due to which about 5 thousand people were evacuated, among them mainly foreign tourists.
