Several migrants said they had been motivated by social media messages claiming that the Spanish border was open, though the origin of those messages remained unclear.
Firefighters have contained vast wildfires in both countries, but winds are high and temperatures rising. Spain’s prime minister said the next 12 hours would be “decisive.”
Officials said they had contained the spread of vast fires in both countries, but warned that rising temperatures and high winds meant the situation was still fluid.
Faced with massive blazes, firefighters in both countries are using a brief window of opportunity to bring the flames under control before temperatures spike.
In central Spain, thousands of people sleep in shelters or in their cars, some of them evacuated multiple times ahead of the advancing flames, awaiting word on what they left behind.
A helicopter fighting a wildfire between El Tiemblo and San Martín de Valdeiglesias, two communities west of Madrid where thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate because of the blaze.
French officials ordered the evacuation of the Cap Ferret Peninsula, a popular holiday destination. Fires west of Madrid were closing in on populated areas.
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