PARIS, July 19 (Reuters) - A wildfire swept through towns on France's Mediterranean coast near Frejus ‌on Sunday, threatening homes and forcing the evacuation ‌of several hamlets as strong winds and drought conditions fuelled its ​rapid spread, local authorities said.

"The fire spread extremely quickly in the context of this heatwave and extreme drought," local prefect Simon Babre told BFM TV.

The blaze ‌had scorched about ⁠180 hectares (445 acres) by Sunday evening, the prefect's office said.

Television images showed large flames ⁠advancing behind hillside villas typical of the French Riviera, while thick black smoke billowed above pine and cypress ​trees.

Train services ​between the Mediterranean port ​of Toulon and Les ‌Arcs were suspended because of the fire.

The World Meteorological Organization last month warned that the record temperatures that baked Western Europe for over a week in late June would worsen the risk of wildfires, ‌given the outlook for sustained high ​temperatures, very low humidity and ​dry vegetation.

According to ​the Reuters Climate Monitor, the average ‌high in the town of ​Les Arcs, where ​the fire was raging, was forecast to be 38 degrees Celsius, which is 11.4 degrees above ​the normal ‌high for July 19 between 1961 and 1990.

(Reporting ​by Manon Cruz; Writing by Michel Rose in ​ParisEditing by Tomasz Janowski)