Thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes on the Costa del Sol after a devastating wildfire ripped across Spain with three people injured.
The entire village of Benahavis near Marbella has been evacuated by police as well as several nearby residential estates including upmarket Montemayor which is popular with British expats and holiday home owners.
The forced evacuation is thought to have affected Torre Tremores, the exclusive villa on the outskirts of Benahavis where PM Boris Johnson stayed last year on a family holiday.
No-one at the local town hall could be reached early this morning to confirm the £25,000-a-week holiday home was among those properties cleared by police.
But Civil Guard officers confirmed the road to Benahavis from the coast had been closed and no-one was being allowed into the village.
The Benahavis evacuation took place late last night following the earlier evacuation of residential estate Montemayor after the wildfire started further north in Pujerra.
Civil Guard officers drove around the village using their speakers to order locals and holidaymakers to collect their belongings and leave the area as well as going door-to-door on foot.
Residents and tourists were ordered to leave restaurant terraces where they had been eating before owners closed up and left town.
The village of Benahavis, part of a municipality of the same name which is home to around 8,000 people, was being described on local news reports this morning as a “ghost town.”
Around 3,000 people have been evacuated so far, with many sleeping overnight in their cars and others including British tourists being put up in emergency town hall accommodation in nearby San Pedro de Alcantara on the coast.
The army has been brought in to help firefighters tackle the blaze, which has already burnt nearly 5,000 acres of land.
Three firefighters have already been injured, with one seriously hurt after suffering burns to 25 per cent of his body.
The wildfire remained “out of control” this morning although a predicted change in the direction of the wind in the coming hours is expected to improve the situation.
The blaze comes on the back of a devastating wildfire which raged through the hills behind Estepona near San Pedro for six days in September last year.
The Sierra Bermeja wildfire led to more than 3,000 people being evacuated from their homes.
Firefighter Carlos Martinez Haro, 44, a father of two young daughters, died battling the flames.
Benahavis Town Hall tweeted late last night/on Thursday night in English and Spanish: “The village is being evacuated. If there is anyone with mobility problems please call 999.
“Buses and taxis are available at the entrance to the village for those who require them.”
Elias Bendodo, an advisor of the president of the regional Andalucia government, said this morning: “The biggest problem here is the evolution of the wildfire, which is advancing at a speed of around 100 feet per minute. That’s very fast indeed.
“The other problem is accessing the source of the blaze.”
Around 600 professionals are tackling the blaze.
They include more than 200 members of Military Emergencies Unit UME, a branch of the Spanish Armed Forces.
Firefighting planes and helicopters have been put on standby, but are said to have been prevented so far from tackling the flames because of a temperature inversion which has reduced visibility.
The Infoca firefighting service confirmed: “At this moment in time there are areas where a temperature inversion is making it impossible for aerial units to work.
“A plane is heading to the area to carry out a reconnaissance flight which will enable us to properly evaluate the situation.”
