California wildfires: Nine dead in most destructive inferno in century while celebrities flee Malibu mansions

Nine people have been burned to death as California's most destructive fire in at least a century engulfed the town of Paradise, while celebrities fled fast-moving fires in the south of the state.

Only a day after it began the so-called "Camp Fire" spread to over 140 square miles in size and levelled the town, which has a population of 30,000. More than 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze, which destroyed more than 6,700 homes and businesses.

Captain Scott McLean, of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said: "Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed. It's that kind of devastation.

Among the evacuees was Kim Kardashian West, the reality television star, who was forced to flee her Southern California home in Calabasas, near Los Angeles.