Two of the victims, both of them elderly hikers, were discovered in woods outside the village of La Garde Freinet in the Maures region, an area of densely forested low-lying hills near the Mediterranean coast.

By 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) the fire had destroyed 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres) of woodland and was encroaching on the coastal town of Sainte-Maxime, where the body of a third victim, a woman, was discovered.

Around 10 homes have been destroyed in the fire since it broke out in mid-afternoon, and the blaze raged on into the evening with blackened trees and electricity cables strewn across the roads.

More than 350 firemen were hard at work Monday evening tackling the flames, whipped up by strong winds despite the tonnes of water flown in aboard nine firefighting planes to quench the burning hillsides.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was due to travel to the Maures hills early Tuesday morning to lend his support to the firefighters.

Three major forest fires have swept through the Var region in the past 10 days, two in the Maures hills and one in the neighbouring Esterel -- both areas of outstanding natural beauty -- but had caused no victims.

In the Maures hills alone, the fires have destroyed around 10,000 hectares of forest, forcing thousands of residents and holidaymakers to flee.

Throughout the Var region, a dozen fires were detected on Monday, with one causing a campsite to be evacuated near the resort town of Frejus.

A serious fire also broke out Monday on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, near the southern town of Bonifacio, where one man was airlifted to hospital with severe burns and residents had to be evacuated by sea and air.

That fire also raged on.

French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced on Monday that the army would send reinforcements to help combat forest fires in the southeast.

On top of the 300 troops already dispatched to work alongside firefighters since the start of summer, the defence ministry will send another 100 men and extra helicopters to help prevent and combat forest fires.

A helicopter carrying Italian firefighters arrived in Corsica on Monday, with several dozen more bound for southeast France, French security services said, following an unprecedented French appeal for help in battling the flames.

TERRA.WIRE