August 01, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 16, 1428

MADRID, July 31: Wildfires sweeping across Spain’s Canary Islands have forced authorities to evacuate around 11,000 people in the biggest fires on the archipelago in a decade, the head of the regional government said on Tuesday.

The fires, which broke out on Friday, have covered 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) on two of the archipelago’s seven islands – Gran Canaria and Tenerife – after being fanned by strong winds, Paulino Rivero said.

“The rugged landscape of these islands makes firefighting very complicated, except from the air. But while there is a lot of wind and very high temperatures, helicopters generally cannot operate,” Rivero told private radio Cadena Ser.

Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius in the archipelago on Tuesday with winds of up to 65 kilometres an hour, the national weather office said.

Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona announced a state of “maximum alert” and said additional planes were being sent to the picturesque archipelago off Africa’s western coast to battle the flames.—AFP