Firefighters battle burning woodland in Spain

Thousands of hectares of wooded hill land have been consumed by wildfires across Spain that forced the evacuation of more than 1,700 people from more than a dozen villages on Saturday as much of Europe suffered an early heat wave.

Service on the high-speed AVE line between Madrid and Galicia was suspended as the blaze in the Sierra de Culebra mountain range continued aided by the high temperatures.

The blaze started Wednesday during a dry electric storm. Most of Spain was at high risk of forest fire Friday as the country endured a sixth day of an unusually early heatwave.

Temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius have been recorded in many cities and other areas throughout the week.