Two firefighters have died while battling a huge blaze near Bordeaux Airport in south-west France, officials have said.

Reports in French media say the blaze, near one of the parking lots at the airport, originated from a brush fire and then spread to a building.

Pictures shared on social media show passengers getting off a plane as a massive plume of smoke rises nearby.

Some 100 firefighters, backed by specialist aircraft, are reported to be trying to extinguish the blaze.

The country’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he had been informed about the deaths by officials in the Gironde department.

A number of flights scheduled to arrive at Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport have been delayed.

Nuñez reported the two deaths during a question-and-answer session at the French parliament on Tuesday and said he would travel to Gironde “as soon as possible” to oversee the firefighting efforts.

Gironde is one of several French departments ravaged by wildfires in recent days, due to a series of unusual and prolonged heatwaves.

Also on Tuesday, a new fire broke out in the south-eastern Var department.

France has registered nearly 11,000 fires since the beginning of the year, with President Emmanuel Macron saying last week that there had not been so many blazes in the country since World War Two.