Two thousand firefighters were battling several wildfires along France’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday, as strong winds and drought conditions following Europe’s recent heatwave fuelled fast-moving flames across the south of the country.

Television footage showed warehouses and a yacht engulfed in flames at a marina in Canet-en-Roussillon, a seaside town near Perpignan and the Spanish border. A thick cloud of black smoke was seen drifting over the beach, while local authorities ordered the evacuation of around 1,500 people from three nearby campsites. Perpignan airport was also temporarily closed.

In Canet-en-Roussillon, four helicopters were deployed to support firefighting efforts, with three Canadair water-bombing aircraft on standby. Officials said their main concern was preventing the flames from reaching an industrial zone containing buildings with potentially flammable or polluting materials.

Earlier in the day, firefighters brought two blazes on the outskirts of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, under control. A larger fire, however, continued to burn across the Aude and Hérault departments, where around 700 to 800 firefighters were deployed. In Aude, the fire had scorched about 900 hectares, with winds of up to 70 kilometres per hour hampering efforts to contain it.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu attended a crisis management meeting in Marseille, as his minority government faces political pressure over its handling of the recent heatwave. France’s meteorological service has warned that another spell of extreme heat could affect the country next week.

Lecornu said that around 8,700 hectares have burned in France so far this wildfire season, including 1,200 hectares in a single day.

The World Meteorological Organization has warned that the record temperatures recorded across Western Europe in late June have sharply increased the risk of wildfires, as high heat, low humidity and dry vegetation create dangerous conditions across the region.