DRAGUIGNAN (France), July 5: More than 10,000 people — many of them foreign tourists — were evacuated from six camping grounds on the French Riviera Tuesday as an intense forest fire driven by high winds advanced on their tents and caravans, officials said.

Emergency services said it appeared the fire had started in three different locations around the village of Puget sur Argens, near the chic coastal town of Saint Raphael, and was raging through dry woodland.

More than 400 firefighters, backed by dozens of vehicles and 11 aircraft, were battling the flames, trying to stop them before they spread to the many homes built in the forested area.

The fire broke out at the start of the European summer vacation period, a time in which millions of tourists from Britain, Germany, Scandinavia and elsewhere flock to the Riviera to soak up the sun.

An official at France’s National Forestry Office said “more than 10,000 people” had been evacuated from just two of the massive campsites to a nature base in Frejus.—AFP