Image copyright Rogaland Red Cross Image caption The Red Cross helped local officials evacuate homes around the town of Sokndal where the fires were most dangerous

Hundreds of people have had to leave their homes in Norway as emergency services try to extinguish forest fires raging in the south of the country.

Some 148 homes were evacuated around the town of Sokndal, where fires have been burning since Tuesday.

Police say the fires are still out of control and warn that heavy winds could help them to spread.

April is very early for forest fires in Norway, and experts have warned of a dramatic increase across the continent.

This month alone, wildfires have broken out in Sweden, Germany and the UK.

Fires in Europe "are way above the average" for this time of year, an official at the EU's European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) told the BBC.

"The season is drastically worse than those of the last decade."

The official added that a "very dry winter in most of Europe" and persistent drought had contributed to the rise in forest fires, and that the "long term forecast is not promising for an improvement".

'No fire control'

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Firefighters aided by helicopters worked on Wednesday to damp down the forest fires

Police in south-west Norway are still unsure what started the fires, which have burned some 7.5 sq km (2.9 square miles) of land near Sokndal, 100km (62 miles) south-east of the coastal city of Stavanger.

As well as evacuating residents, rescue services spent the night soaking land in surrounding areas in an effort to stop the fire from spreading.

But they fear that expected winds of nine to 11 metres per second could cause the fire to move into neighbouring districts.

"The wind is still a challenge and will become an even greater challenge if it increases. It's still burning heavily, and there is no fire control," said south-west police official Toralf Skarland.

Police said there had been no reports of casualties but warned people to avoid the area.

Image copyright Norway Police handout Image caption This police map highlights in red where the fire is burning, while the green section shows evacuated areas

The Red Cross, which helped with the evacuation effort, told the BBC the blaze was close to farms, huts and small villages.

Fires were also burning around the town of Lyngdal in the neighbouring area, it said.

Other wildfires

Forest fires have broken out in several parts of northern Europe this month amid hot temperatures.

Dozens of people were evacuated from their homes when a blaze broke out in southern Sweden on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning it was under control.

In Germany, crews battled fires over the Easter weekend and Germany's weather service warned Germans on Wednesday to expect a drought this year at least as severe as in 2018 if the current dry weather continued.

"The starting conditions for vegetation in 2019 are in many areas of Germany clearly worse than last year," said agriculture meteorologist Udo Busch.

A huge wildfire broke out in Moray, Scotland this week, which officials said would "take days" to put out.

Two fires also spread across moorland in West Yorkshire.

What about southern Europe?

The spate of forest fires in northern Europe contrasts with storms and torrential rain in the south.

A woman drowned when the car she was in was swept away by a flood in Tuscany on Tuesday, and a French tourist died in storms off Sardinia earlier this week. </s> A spate of spring wildfires in Sweden and Norway sparked memories of last year's historic forest fires, as firefighters brought most of the blazes under control on Wednesday.

A total of ten fires were of a "serious nature", a Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) spokesman told AFP.

Eight helicopters were being used to fight blazes in the south that were reported to be under control on Wednesday afternoon.

"They have them under control," MSB press secretary Marcus Årskog told Swedish news agency TT.

The most severe covered 300 hectares and broke out in Hässleholm municipality in southern Sweden, forcing 49 people to evacuate.

Last year a historically hot summer set a total of 25,000 hectares of forest ablaze in Sweden, almost ten times the yearly average, according to a government study.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Sweden's historic wildfire outbreak

MSB said the exact cause of the spring fires was not known but believed them to be the result of human activity, either from barbecues or forestry machines.

The sunny and warm spring weather had also made the fire risk unusually high for the season.

"The next few days look really bad," Anneli Bergholm Söder, head of operations at MSB, told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that more humid weather was expected for the weekend which would likely improve the situation.

MSB also said Sweden was much better equipped to deal with the fires this year, having taking a number of steps to improve its capacity to respond.

Among the measures were a system with different private contractors, making up to 30 helicopters available for water bombing.

However, Brandmännens riksförbund, a union representing firefighters in Sweden, said they were hampered by a lack of workers, and that around 2,800 full and part-time firefighters were needed for them to remain fully staffed over the summer, TT reported.

In neighbouring Norway, hundreds of hectares of forest were also destroyed by fires between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Local authorities announced they had largely contained the most threatening fire, which covered some 700 hectares in Norway's south-west around Sokndal.

No injuries were reported. Some 148 homes were evacuated but all residents returned by Wednesday afternoon after 150 firefighters and six helicopters were mobilized.

Norwegian Minister of Public Safety Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde told TV2 she had "learned from the lessons" of the 2018 fires and helicopters and staff would be on constant alert during the summer. </s> Wildfires in southeastern France have forced the evacuation of at least 10,000 people overnight Tuesday, officials said.

The blaze, near Borme-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast, came one day after France reached out to the European Union for extra help in fighting wildfires raging through the country's arid south, Agence France-Presse reports .

The exceptional heat and dryness this summer — coinciding with the peak tourism season on the French Riviera — has increased fire risks in the region.

"It's an area that doubles or triples its population in summer," a fire official said. "The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire."

Wildfires have already ravaged about 4,000 hectares (15 square miles) of land around the Mediterranean coast, the hilly interior and on the island of Corsica.

One of the fires burning in La Croix-Valmar, near the seaside resort town of Saint-Tropez, had been contained Tuesday, AFP reports quoting local officials. But 400 hectares of coastal forest were burnt by then, forcing over 200 evacuations.

Authorities have deployed more than 4,000 firefighters and soldiers to combat the flames, with the help of 19 water-bomber planes. At least 12 firefighters have suffered injuries since fires broke out on Monday, while 15 police officers have been affected by smoke inhalation.
Police evacuate 148 homes in Sokndal, Norway. Wildfires have burned through about 7.5 square kilometers (2.9 sq. miles) of land in the area. A spokesperson for the European Union Forest Fire Information System says wildfires in northern Europe "are way above the average" for this time of year.