This is the terrifying moment a fire tornado raced towards French firemen battling a huge blaze amid a record-breaking European drought that has dried up rivers, melted glaciers and ravaged farmland.
Video of the rare phenomenon, posted to social media on Friday, showed a tornado rip through an area of dry grassland where firefighters were battling a wall of flames.
A twisting pillar of smoke is seen rising up into the sky, before the wind passes over the inferno. This causes flames to twist upwards and dance rapidly across the ground. The footage cuts as the flames barrel towards a fire engine.
France has been forced to call in reinforcements from across Europe to help battle a huge wildfire that has been burning in the south of the country for more than a month.
Hundreds of firefighters from Germany, Poland, Romania and Italy are heading to Gironde, near Bordeaux, to help tackle a blaze that began burning in early July as Europe's record-breaking summer heatwave got underway before reigniting several days ago - forcing 10,000 people from their homes and burning 7,000 hectares of pine forest.
Water-bombing planes are also being sent from Greece and Sweden to help extinguish the flames, as locals describe biblical scenes. Valentine Dupy, who lives in the village of Belin-Beliet, said the region is 'like an apocalypse. Smoke everywhere ... and planes throwing orange powder onto the fire.'
Europe is sweltering through a record-breaking summer of heatwaves and drought that has parched the continent and turned forests tinder-dry. In Switzerland, a glacial pass that has been covered by ice for the last 2,000 years is set to be ice-free by the end of the week because it has all melted.
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