A Hampshire family were among those who fled from their homes in Portugal when wildfires drew dangerously close.

A fire near Odemira began on Saturday before strong winds drove it into the Algarve.

The Harvie-Watt family decided to evacuate their home in São Teotónio when flames approached.

Rosie Harvie-Watt, 15, described how her brothers and dad doused the building with water in an attempt to prevent it being engulfed.

More than 1,400 people were evacuated from the southern town of Odemira overnight on Monday, as firefighters battled the flames.

The family from Andover said they first noticed a plume of smoke rising above trees on their way home from the beach on Saturday, but continued as normal after agreeing the fires seemed a safe distance away.

Rosie said: “There was an amber glow on the horizon following us wherever we went, we took nightly watches to monitor the spread.”

By Monday, the wind direction had changed and the wildfires drew dangerously close, forcing the family of five to evacuate.

They moved to Zambujeira do Mar but within two hours the smoke surrounded that town too.

The family travelled on to Vila Nova de Milfontes before moving to a hotel further north in Setúbal.

The wildfire is estimated to have destroyed at least 6,700 hectares (16,600 acres) of land.

Around 800 personnel were tackling the fires on Monday and at least nine firefighters have been injured.

The family praised the emergency services and said the firefighters had been heroic in their attempts to control the blazes amid strong and unpredictable winds.

Rosie’s brother Tom, 20, said: “They have worked around the clock in extreme heat and thick smoke with little food and water, often on shifts exceeding 16 hours.

“Many of the firefighters are volunteers, who all donate their pay back into the departments as they are reliant on donations.”

The family returned to the property on Tuesday to assess the damage.

Their home is still standing while fires continues to burn in surrounding areas.

Norway evacuated thousands of people as rivers swelled to their highest levels in at least 50 years on Wednesday and homes and businesses were submerged or swept away by landslides.

Major roads were closed and train services suspended across wide parts of southern Norway as rivers breached their banks, and authorities warned of more flooding to come in the days ahead as the water moves towards lower-lying coastal regions.

Innlandet county, one of Norway’s worst hit areas, said many people were isolated by the floods and that first responders may not be able to reach those in need.

“We’re in an emergency situation of national dimensions,” Innlandet Mayor Aud Hove said in a press release.

The government on Wednesday decided to mobilise more helicopters to take part in the evacuation, the ministry of justice and public security told broadcaster TV2.

No deaths have so far been recorded from the disaster, Norwegian authorities have said.

Strong winds, intense rain and landslides hit different parts of the Nordic region in recent days, knocking out power lines in Finland, flooding villages in Norway and Sweden and bringing public transport to a standstill in hard-hit areas.

On Monday, a Swedish train derailed when a railway embankment was washed away by floods, injuring three people.

Authorities in Norway and Sweden maintained red alerts, their most severe flood warnings, for several regions on Wednesday.

Indonesia’s capital Jakarta topped the list as the world’s most polluted city on Wednesday, having consistently ranked among the 10 most polluted cities globally since May, according to data by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

Jakarta, which has a population of over 10 million, registers unhealthy air pollution levels nearly every day, according to IQAir.

Resident Rizky Putra lamented that the worsening air quality was putting his children’s health at risk.

“I think the situation is very worrying,” Rizky, 35, told Reuters TV by the side of a road in downtown Jakarta.

“So many children are sick with the same complaints and symptoms such as coughs and cold,” he said.

Jakarta residents have long complained of toxic air from chronic traffic, industrial smoke and coal-fired power plants. Some of them launched and won a civil lawsuit in 2021 demanding the government take action to control air pollution.

The court at the time ruled President Joko Widodo must establish national air quality standards to protect human health, and the health minister and Jakarta governor must devise strategies to control air pollution.

Still, Nathan Roestandy, co-founder of air quality app Nafas Indonesia, said the pollution level has continued to deteriorate.

“We take more than 20,000 breaths a day. If we take in polluted air everyday, (it could lead to) respiratory and pulmonary diseases, even asthma. It can affect cognitive development of children or even mental health,” he said.

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Asked about Jakarta’s pollution problem on Tuesday, President Widodo told reporters the solution would be to move the country’s capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara, which his government is currently building from the ground up on Borneo island.

Indonesia is set to name Nusantara as the new capital next year and at least 16,000 civil servants, military and police are due to move there.