Forest fires scorched more than 2 square kilometers of land on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that people at a monastery to the north of the island had been evacuated.

Some 200 firefighters were deployed to the region to battle the blazes.

Strong winds were fanning the fires in the northern town of Pigna, the fire brigade wrote on Tuesday.

Gilles Simeoni, the head of the Corsican executive council, wrote that a probable cause of the fire on the island was arson.