Helicopters were out at the crack of dawn yesterday dropping tonnes of water to douse fires still burning in the south of France, after blazes which claimed five lives and ravaged large areas of brush woodland.
Police in the southern town of Draguignan said they had taken in for questioning a 30-year-old municipal employee, who was alleged to have admitted to starting some of the fires. He was said to have been seen at the scene of several blazes as they broke out.
Some 700 firemen battled throughout the night to try to extinguish the blaze near Draguignan as authorities reported that most of the fires, many believed to have been started deliberately, were now under control.
More than 1,700 firefighters were mobilized Tuesday to fight the fast-moving fires, which forced thousands to flee their homes, as they cut a swathe across the picturesque Maures hills of the Var region just off the French Riviera coast, near the fashionable resort town of Saint-Tropez.
Firemen said that they were surprised by the number of fires starting simultaneously, as many as 25 at a time, which strongly pointed to arson.
The blaze still burning near Draguignan yesterday devoured 1,500 hectares of woodland in the space of 48 hours, officials said.
Adding to the sense of crisis the authorities had to cut off power supplies to some 400,000 households for several hours late on Tuesday so that water dumped from aircraft would not snap high-tension electricity lines.
The fires broke out in force on Monday and have come during an exceptionally hot and dry summer in much of southern and central Europe.
For the first time, France was forced to call in foreign reinforcements. With Italian firefighters already on the scene, Paris also rented five water-dropping aircraft from Moscow, which headed to the zone on Tuesday.
Reacting to suspicions of arson, French President Jacques Chirac said during a visit to French Polynesia that anyone found responsible would face "punishment of exceptional severity."
Visiting the region, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that authorities would "show no mercy to people who start fires, including those who do so out of carelessness," describing the blazes as an "ecological massacre."
"To be careless is to be criminal," Sarkozy warned.
Justice Minister Dominique Perben said identity checks would be carried out in high-risk areas in order to deter would-be arsonists.
Two British nationals -- identified as 63-year-old Margaret Timson and her 15-year-old granddaughter Kirsty Edgerton -- were found burned to death on Monday in woods outside the village of La Garde-Freinet.
A 76-year-old Dutch woman, whose body was found in the coastal town of Sainte-Maxime, and a 72-year-old Polish man were also killed, French officials said.
On the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, where brush fires also broke out on Monday near the southern town of Bonifacio, a 49-year-old man died after suffering severe burns while trying to save his home.
Officials said the blazes had destroyed more than 8,000 hectares of woodland and brush in the Var region between the coastal cities of Marseille and Nice, most of it in the Maures hills.
More than 30,000 hectares of forest lands have burned in southeastern France and Corsica since the start of the summer, civil security officials said -- the most damage in 25 years.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia