LATEST: Wildfire breaks out near popular beach in Tarifa on southern tip of Spain

A BLAZE has broken out near Valdevaqueros Beach on Friday afternoon, confirmed firefighting agency INFOCA.

A team of 20 firefighters has been scrambled to the area to tackle the blaze as well as two water carrying helicopters.

The firefighting teams are concentrating their efforts on the west side of the N-340 highway, where the flames are most intense.

Several witnesses posted on social media that a beach bar called “El Tumbao” was evacuated.

Spain is well on track for its worst year of wildfires since 2012, with 187,676 hectares of forest razed by flames so far this year.

According to the latest data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which compiles data from the Copernicus satellite program (since 2006), the area burned to date already exceeds that of the whole of 2017, the second worst year in the historical series when 130,920 hectares were engulfed by the flames.

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