Firefighters fight forest blaze ravaging western Spain

Firefighters backed by soldiers battled a wildfire in western Spain on Friday that has forced hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages, officials said.

The flames have ravaged some 3,000 hectares of forest and scrubland and forced the evacuation of 700 people from several villages, the regional government said.

Strong winds were "making it extremely difficult to control" the blaze, the president of the regional government, Guillermo Fernandez Vara, told reporters. Wind gusts of up to 60 kilometres an hour have been recorded in the region in recent days.