Firefighters and military units are struggling to contain wildfires in northwest and western Spain as a prolonged heatwave intensifies the crisis.

As Spain enters its third week of heatwave alerts, firefighters continue to battle blazes in the northwest and west of the country, with army units deployed to help contain the blazes.

Firefighters have spent days battling blazes in Greece, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere. Forecasters said temperatures could pass 111 degrees in some places on Thursday.

In Galicia, fires shut down several highways and halted high-speed rail services to Madrid. The EU’s European Forest Fire Information System reported that wildfires in Spain this year have already burned 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres), an area the size of metropolitan London.

Thousands of people have been evacuated in Spain due to deadly wildfires fuelled by a new heatwave.Heatwave causing wildfires across the Mediterranean has killed at least three people as firefighters continued battling wildfires on Tuesday,

Three men died and thousands were forced from their homes on Tuesday as wildfires fuelled by a heatwave scorched southern Europe.

Spain is battling a series of devastating wildfires that have killed two people and destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and scrubland. There are currently 14 major active fires, Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen told radio station Cadena Ser on Wednesday.

France’s red warning is for the south west of the country, with citizens told to remain “absolutely vigilant” as “everyone is at risk, even healthy people” during a heatwave, according to Meteo France, the country’s meteorological service.