French firefighters battled for a second day on Thursday to contain its biggest wildfire in nearly 80 years, which has burnt over 16,000 hectares and killed one person.

Reuters TV images captured dense plumes of smoke rising over the forest area in the region of Aude in southern France.

One of the officials leading the firefighting operations Christophe Magny told BFM TV that “As of now, the fire has not been brought under control”.

The blaze near the border with Spain towards the Mediterranean Sea began earlier this week and has already swept through an area bigger than Paris.

Officials have said it is France’s biggest wildfire since 1949.

Scientist warn that the Mediterranean region’s increasingly hotter and drier summers place it high risks for wildfires.