Hundreds of firefighters battled new wildfires in France and Spain on Saturday as the European heatwave claimed three more lives in Italy.

More than 700 firefighters had to be mobilised to bring 60 separate fires under control in the southern French département of Gard.

At least 15 homes were destroyed and 1,500 acres of land were left scorched and blackened land.

In Spain, firefighters managed to contain 90 per cent of the worst wildfire in 20 years that had raged across 23 square miles of land in Catalonia, but two other wildfires were still burning in central Spain.

British expats told ion Saturday how they fled for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs as the wildfire encircled their rural homes in Catalonia last week.