France's biggest wildfire of the summer has eclipsed the size of Paris and is still spreading

SAINT-LAURENT-DE-LA-CABRERISSE, France (AP) — France’s biggest wildfire in years was spreading quickly Wednesday in a Mediterranean region near Spain after leaving one person dead and several injured, authorities said. The fire burned an area larger than Paris, and the military was called in to help.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou deplored a “disaster on an unprecedented scale” in the region.

Over 2,100 firefighters and several water bomber aircraft battled the blaze that broke out Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region, a rural, wooded area that is home to wineries.

The fire, which has burned 16,000 hectares (39,500 acres), remained “very active” on Wednesday and continued to progress as night fell, the local administration said. The weather was hot, dry and windy, making it difficult for firefighters to contain the blaze.

Villagers sought to help douse the flames or save their homes and small businesses, and described their alarm at the fire's speed. Ash filled the air and coated windows and cars, and several roads were closed around the region.

’’The sky was blue, and then less than an hour later the sky was orange,″ said Andy Pickup of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, at the heart of the fire zone. “That’s when we went out and tried to help.”

’’We heard pops and cracks — it was the trees, it was the village,″ he told The Associated Press. ’’We could see the fires taking hold on all the hills around Saint-Laurent.″ At dusk, he said, they saw fires in every direction, some as near as 100 meters (yards) away.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the military will reinforce efforts starting from Thursday, with several dozens of soldiers to be deployed.

One person died in their home, and at least 13 others were injured, including 11 firefighters, local authorities said. Three people were missing, the prefecture said.

Jacques Piraux, mayor of the village of Jonquières, said all residents have been evacuated.

“It’s a scene of sadness and desolation," he told broadcaster BFM TV after visiting there on Wednesday morning. “It looks like a lunar landscape, everything is burned. More than half or three-quarters of the village has burned down. It’s hellish.”

Residents and tourists in nearby areas were requested to remain in their homes unless told to evacuate. Two campgrounds were evacuated as a precaution.

The prime minister met Wednesday afternoon with firefighters and residents at Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, where the fire service's command post has been set up. He said he came to express “national solidarity.”

The area's economy is relying on winery and tourism and “both sectors are affected,” he stressed.

Bayrou said an investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.

The environment ministry said the Aude region has been experiencing a drought this month, with water use restrictions in place. Lack of rainfall in recent months “played a major role in the spreading of the fire, since the vegetation is very dry,” the statement said.

This week's fire was the biggest since the creation of a national fire database in 2006, according to the national emergency service.

Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires. Last month, a wildfire that reached the southern port of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, left aroundTh 300 people injured.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

‘’We’ve lived here for 10 years and we’ve seen nothing like that,'' Pickup said. ‘’Consistently the summers are getting hotter, there is less and less rain, and that is a major problem.''

‘’We have been told the wind might come stronger tomorrow,'' he added.

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press journalists German Martinez in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows an aerial view of the wildfire in a Mediterranean region near the Spanish border, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows firefighters battling a wildfire in a Mediterranean region near the Spanish border, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

Cars drive past a fast-moving wildfire in a Mediterranean region of France near the Spanish border is pictured Tuesday Aug.5, 2025. (Richard Capoulade/UGC via AP)

This photo provided by the regional prefecture shows a water bomber dropping liquid on a fast-moving wildfire in a Mediterranean region of France near the Spanish border, Tuesday Aug. 5, 2025. (Sandrine Verdun/SDIS11 via AP)

This photo provided by Meteo France shows smoke billowing from a wild fire in southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Meteo France via AP)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows a water bomber plane dropping water on the wildfire in the Corbieres massif , southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows the wildfire in the Corbieres massif, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

Cars are charred after a wildfire broke out near near Durban-Corbieres in southern France, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Hernan Munoz)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows an aerial view of the wildfire in a Mediterranean region near the Spanish border, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows firefighters battling a wildfire in a Mediterranean region near the Spanish border, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

Cars drive past a fast-moving wildfire in a Mediterranean region of France near the Spanish border is pictured Tuesday Aug.5, 2025. (Richard Capoulade/UGC via AP)

This photo provided by the regional prefecture shows a water bomber dropping liquid on a fast-moving wildfire in a Mediterranean region of France near the Spanish border, Tuesday Aug. 5, 2025. (Sandrine Verdun/SDIS11 via AP)

This photo provided by Meteo France shows smoke billowing from a wild fire in southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Meteo France via AP)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows a water bomber plane dropping water on the wildfire in the Corbieres massif , southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

This photo provided by the Securite Civile shows the wildfire in the Corbieres massif, southern France, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (Securite Civile via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Laws that will make it illegal to create online sexual images of someone without their consent are coming into force soon in the U.K., officials said Thursday, following a global backlash over the use of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to make sexualized deepfakes of women and children.

Musk's company, xAI, announced late Wednesday that it has introduced measures to prevent Grok from allowing the editing of photos of real people to portray them in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the move, and said X must “immediately” ensure full compliance with U.K. law. He stressed that his government will remain vigilant on any transgressions by Grok and its users.

“Free speech is not the freedom to violate consent," Starmer said Thursday. “I am glad that action has now been taken. But we’re not going to let this go. We will continue because this is a values argument.”

The chatbot, developed by Musk's company xAI and freely accessed through his social media platform X, has faced global scrutiny after it emerged that it was used in recent weeks to generate thousands of images that “undress” people without their consent. The digitally-altered pictures included nude images as well as depictions of women and children in bikinis or in sexually explicit poses.

Critics have said laws regulating generative AI tools are long overdue, and that the U.K. legal changes should have been brought into force much sooner.

A look at the problem and how the U.K. aims to tackle it:

Britain's media regulator has launched an investigation into whether X has breached U.K. laws over the Grok-generated images of children being sexualized or people being undressed. The watchdog, Ofcom, said such images — and similar productions made by other AI models — may amount to pornography or child sexual abuse material.

The problem stemmed from the launch last year of Grok Imagine, an AI image generator that allows users to create videos and pictures by typing in text prompts. It includes a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall cited a report from the internet Watch Foundation saying the deepfake images included sexualization of 11-year-olds and women subjected to physical abuse.

“The content which has circulated on X is vile. It is not just an affront to decent society, it is illegal,” she said.

Authorities said they are making legal changes to criminalize those who use or supply “nudification” tools.

First, the government says it is fast-tracking provisions in the Data (Use and Access) Act making it a criminal offense to create or request deepfake images. The act was passed by Parliament last year, but had not yet been brought into force.

The legislation is set to come into effect on Feb. 6

“Let this be a clear message to every cowardly perpetrator hiding behind a screen: you will be stopped and when you are, make no mistake that you will face the full force of the law,” Justice Secretary David Lammy said

Separately, the government said it is also criminalizing “nudification” apps as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.

The new criminal offense will make it illegal for companies to supply tools designed to create non-consensual intimate images. Kendall said this would “target the problem at its source.”

The investigation by Ofcom is ongoing. Kendall said X could face a fine of up to 10% of its qualifying global revenue depending on the investigation’s outcome and a possible court order blocking access to the site.

Starmer has faced calls for his government to stop using X. Downing Street said this week it was keeping its presence on the platform “under review."

Musk insisted Grok complied with the law. “When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state,” he posted on X. “There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”

FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)