Firefighting teams said Monday that they had brought under control over the past night a fire that destroyed 930 hectares on Sunday in southwestern France , on the border with Spain .

"It was brought under control at around 02:00 (0000 GMT) after destroying 930 hectares," a spokesman for the fire department in the Pyrenees-Oriental department told AFP.

And he indicated in a tweet that French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan would visit the site of the fire "to assess the situation and provide support to the 500 fire and rescue personnel who rushed to the site to put out the fire and the residents of the area who were severely affected."

The fire broke out on Sunday morning between the communes of Cerbier and Banyols-sur-Mer, and up to 540 firefighters were deployed to try to put it out.

This is the largest fire recorded so far in France during the year 2023, and it broke out in a part of the country that suffers from a great lack of precipitation and dry soil.