Giant cloud of forest fire smoke smothers Madrid

Madrid: A giant cloud of acrid smoke caused by a forest fire enveloped Madrid on Thursday in a summer expected to spark increasingly fierce blazes in...

Madrid: A giant cloud of acrid smoke caused by a forest fire enveloped Madrid on Thursday in a summer expected to spark increasingly fierce blazes in Spain.

The uncontrolled fire in the municipality of Mentrida, around 50 kilometres (31 miles) southwest of the capital, prompted local authorities to urge nearby residents to stay at home and shut their windows.

The wind blew the smoke over Madrid, where AFP journalists saw ash falling from a thick cloud of orange and grey-coloured smoke, with observers gathering in the street to take pictures.

Madrid's civil protection service advised people to avoid staying outdoors and to use surgical face masks to avoid inhaling the ash, while part of a main motorway leading to the city was closed.

More than 150 firefighters were deployed on the ground and in the air to extinguish the fire that began at around 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), according to the forest fire information service of the central Castilla-La Mancha region.