Forest fires that killed four tourists and destroyed vast tracts of woodland near France's Riviera coast have been declared under control today after a 24-hour battle by nearly 2,000 firefighters.
Local officials said they suspected arsonists were behind some 30 devastating blazes that shrouded the picturesque Provencal countryside in thick smoke and forced hundreds of holidaymakers to flee their villas and camp sites.
"All the fires are under control," a spokesman for the local government of the Var region said, a day after the blazes sprung up in an area stretching from the mountain town of Fayence to the sea resort of Sainte-Maxime, near Cannes and Saint Tropez.
The badly burnt corpses of a teenage girl and her grandmother from the British town of Wigan were found near the mountain village of La Garde-Freinet, a local government spokesman said. A Dutch woman and Polish man had also been found dead, he said.
There were scenes of panic as the flames engulfed caravans, cars and electricity poles, forcing people to ditch their vehicles by the side of the road. Some tourists were stranded wearing nothing but their swimming suits.
President Jacques Chirac, on an official visit to French Polynesia, promised harsh punishment for the culprits.
"If some of the fires are of criminal origin - and there is every reason to believe they are - the culprits will be pursued with extreme severity," Mr Chirac told a news conference.