Planes fight fire in Fontainebleau forest near Paris

Firefighting aircraft battled for a second day Monday to contain a fire that could have been intentionally started in a forest south of Paris, with the blaze forcing evacuations as the region baked in a latest heatwave.

The fire erupted Sunday in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of the capital, a onetime royal hunting preserve that today is dotted with quiet villages. It quickly spread disrupting rail and road traffic.

The rare forest fire in the north of the country had raced across 800 hectares (2,000 acres) -- an area larger than Gibraltar -- by early Monday.

"I have never seen this before" in three decades, Didier Buguinet, a deputy mayor in Le Vaudoue, said of the flames raging on the edge of the village of some 750 inhabitants.

"We're going to weep for our forest," he said.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said authorities were exploring the possibility that the fire was intentionally started.

"There were about 10 fire ignition points within a perimeter of 1,000 meters, which suggests that it could have been deliberately set," he said.

- Farmers help out -

France is weathering a third heatwave in less than three months, with fires raging in several parts of the country over the past week.

It is the latest such deadly episode of extreme weather, whose increasing frequency in recent decades scientists have linked to man-made climate change.

Cindy Fuyard, a 45-year-old nurse, said she fled her home in Le Vaudoue on Sunday night with her family, before returning to open her gate so firefighters could access the water in her swimming pool.

"With global warming, it was to be expected that they would get closer" to Paris, she said, referring to forest fires.

Authorities rushed firefighting planes to help fight the flames, the first time such aircraft have been used in the  Paris region. 

Grey clouds billowed above the forest as fire trucks headed towards the flames on narrow forest paths.

Farmers in tractors tugged water cisterns to some areas and aimed hoses at the blaze.

Two Canadair planes joined the battle on Monday, scooping up water from the Seine river to douse the flames.

The fire disrupted the A6 motorway that leads out of Paris to the southeast and parts of the highway remained closed Monday, according to Google Maps.

- Trains resume -

But the national railway service said it had repaired cables burnt by the fire on Sunday, allowing it to resume normal services for fast trains connecting the capital to the southeastern city of Lyon.

Sophie Guiot showed AFP a picture of a water-dumping plane flying over her home.

"My parents in the south of the country had been worrying about fires, but it's here that it happened," she said.

The country recorded more than 2,000 excess deaths during the June heatwave, and 300 during the high temperatures in late May, according to official figures.

Since the start of the year, wildfires have scorched some 25,000 hectares of land in France -- an area nearly as big as Edinburgh and twice as much as during the same period last year, director general of civil security Julien Marion said on Friday.

Temperatures were expected to remain high through France's national holiday on Tuesday, according to the Meteo-France weather service.

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© Agence France-Presse