New Delhi, Aug. 3 -- France is facing the "toughest situation since the second world war", declared Emmanuel Macron on July 27th on a visit to firefighters in the Gironde area around Bordeaux. He was referring to the scale of the wildfires, but at times it felt as if he was referring to a crisis of any sort. Images of the wildfires that began five days earlier in one of south-west France's most forested areas have shaken the country. Firefighters called the scenes apocalyptic and Dantesque. The area destroyed, 42,000 hectares, is four times the size of Paris. Over 200,000 people have been evacuated. A week after they broke out, the fires were still not under control and were just 15km from the city of Bordeaux itself.

The wildfires start...