One person has so far died in the 20 kilometre wide forest fire currently raging uncontrolled along the Costa del Sol and affecting the municipalities of Marbella, Mijas, Alhaurín el Grande, Ojén and Coín.
The entire population of Ójen are among more than four thousand people who have been evacuated from their homes as a security measure.
The fatality is an elderly man whose body was found in the hills. Twp other people, a married couple who refused to leave their home, have been seriously injured.
The fire, thought to have been caused deliberately due to the rapid spread of flames along a wide front amongst other things, has burned a number of homes and destroyed more than 1,000 hectares of land.
The prevailing winds are not helping the efforts to bring the blaze under control.