The forest fire in the Saxon Switzerland National Park has spread.

A disaster alarm had been triggered for Bad Schandau, said a spokesman for the district office of the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains on Tuesday morning.

There are now five deployment sites around the Großer Winterberg.

The spokesman was unable to provide any information on the exact area that was on fire in the impassable, rocky area.

Tourists should avoid the rear Saxon Switzerland.

The forces had withdrawn for their own protection at night.

Active firefighting has been going on since Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. with fresh firefighters.

There are currently 250 firefighters and federal and state police forces on duty.

Two water cannons, each with a capacity of 10,000 liters, and two helicopters are also used to fight the fire.

The water supply comes from the Elbe, for example.

The fire spread from the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic to the Saxon Switzerland National Park on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, 136 emergency services were still on site, said a spokesman for the district.

A helicopter should explore the situation in the morning.

"Our big problem is the wind," said a spokesman for the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office with a view to the spread of the fire.

Fire on an area of ​​800 hectares

In Brandenburg, meanwhile, an area near Rehfeld in the south of the state is affected, where firefighters tried to contain a large fire.

According to the Elbe-Elster district, it has spread over an area of ​​800 hectares.

The situation was "very tense," said a spokesman for the fire department in the morning.

The fire is not yet under control.

The first residents had to leave their homes on Monday.

Around 600 people were affected.

The Kölsa settlement in the city of Falkenberg (Elster) is particularly affected, said a spokesman for the fire department of the German Press Agency.

The fire brigade was on site on Tuesday morning with 152 emergency services.

In Rehfeld, the situation was very confusing due to strong winds, Deputy Forest Fire Protection Officer Philipp Haase told the German Press Agency on Monday.

According to him, there was a fire in the forest between wind turbines, and at least one system was within the area of ​​the fire.

Among other things, helicopters from the Bundeswehr had been requested for Tuesday, said Haase.

At least seven emergency services were injured during the operation, and six of them were taken to the hospital, the district said.

In addition, a piglet breeding facility in the Kölsa settlement burned down and many animals died.

Risk decreases from Tuesday

According to the forest fire risk index of the German Weather Service, the risk of forest fires should decrease on Tuesday.

However, forest areas continued to burn elsewhere in Europe, for example in Greece, where the risk of further fires is also high on Tuesday.

A forest fire in the southern part of the island of Lesbos, which was still not under control on Monday, has already destroyed around 1,700 hectares.

For Tuesday, the fire brigade again spoke of a "very high risk of forest fires" for Athens and the surrounding area as well as the island of Euboea and the islands of the eastern Aegean.

There is also a “high risk of forest fire” in large parts of the country.

While the forest fires on the southern French Atlantic coast south of Bordeaux are slowly coming under control, the persistent heat in the Mediterranean is causing concern due to rising water temperatures.

The French Observatory for Tornadoes and Severe Thunderstorms has now described the water temperatures, which have risen to almost 30 degrees, as exceptional and very worrying.