In south-west France, authorities have evacuated around 200,000 people after wildfires ripped through the Gironde and Landes regions.

In the early hours of Saturday, four towns near Bordeaux were evacuated “as a precaution”.

The towns were Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, Saint-Jean d’Illac, Martignas-sur-Jalles, and Saint-Aubin de Médoc, which together have a population of 58,400 residents.

The Gironde blaze, described by local prefect Sophie Brocas as an “XXL fire”, has burned through more than 19,000 hectares (46,000 acres) of forest and destroyed about 80 homes.

Officials evacuated the entire Cap Ferret peninsula on the south-west coast, with hundreds escaping by boat after flames swept through the popular tourist destination.

The area has a year-round population of just under 8,000 people, but numbers can increase 10 fold during the summer holiday season.

Fire and rescue chief Marc Vermeulen said conditions were more severe than during the devastating fires that hit the region in 2022, with drought enabling the blaze to continue spreading through the night.

“We have never seen a convective fire of this magnitude,” France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told French broadcaster TF1, adding that around 50 firefighters had been injured.

He said the blaze was “self-sustaining” and changing direction, with the fire moving east towards Bordeaux on Friday evening.

“We are going to reorganise our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing toward Bordeaux,” he said.