PARIS — One person has been found dead as firefighters continue to tackle a raging wildfire in southern France.

Thousands of people have been evacuated in the coastal Var department, around the villages of Grimaud and La Môle near Saint Tropez.

Twelve campsites were also evacuated, the regional Prefecture said on Twitter. The fire broke out on Monday at the Sigues motorway service area, about 100km northeast of Toulon.

By Wednesday, it had traveled 22 kilometers, burning 5,000 hectares of forests and damaging around 100 houses.

At least 22 people have also been slightly injured, most suffering from smoke inhalation.

Some 1,200 firefighters are mobilized on the third day of the fire, accompanied by 120 gendarmes sent in to secure the area.

Four fire-fighting planes, a helicopter and two Dash aircraft, which drop fire retardant, were also deployed on Tuesday to assist the operation.

"The fire has not progressed but that does not mean it is under control," warned Franck Graciano, communications officer for the Var fire brigade.

The Var is among just two departments under yellow warning on Tuesday morning because of heatwave conditions.

Several roads have been closed with the authorities urging people to not impede access for emergency services to take pictures.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who came to support the rescue efforts on Tuesday, said that "the next few hours" would be "absolutely decisive" in tackling the fire.

Many Mediterranean countries have been hit by raging fires this summer which were fueled by scorching temperatures, including Greece, Italy, Algeria, Spain, Turkey and Morocco,

More than 100,000 hectares were scorched in Greece in what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described as the "worst ecological disaster" in decades. — Euronews