San Francisco Frontiers - Planes fight fire in Fontainebleau forest near Paris

The fire erupted late afternoon 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, and quickly spread.

The rare forest fire in the north of the country had raced across 800 hectares -- an area larger than Gibraltar -- by early Monday, disturbing rail and highway traffic on a busy holiday travel weekend.

"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.

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

"Two Canadair planes are preparing to scoop up water from the Seine" river, officials in the Seine-et-Marne region on the city's outskirts said on Monday on X.

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

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

- Latest heatwave -

France is weathering its 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.

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.

High temperatures were expected to continue until France's national public holiday on Tuesday, according to the Meteo-France national weather service.

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U.Campbell--SFF