About 1,400 firefighters were deployed on Saturday in France's southern Aude region to prevent the country's largest wildfire in decades from reigniting, as all residents were allowed to return to their homes.

Satellite images revealed the scope of destruction in the south of France where an area larger than the country's capital Paris has been turned into ashes by a massive wildfire.

Wildfires in south-western France are the worst in 75 years, according to experts, with the prime minister lamenting a “disaster on an unprecedented scale”.