Terrified onlookers watch as wildfire smoke engulfs British Columbia sky

Horrified onlookers watched as a wildfire engulfed parts of British Columbia, Canada, sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky.

This footage, posted by @610Mike on Twitter/X, shows locals putting their arms around each other as clouds of smoke loom ahead of them from the McDougall Creek wildfire in West Kelowna.

The blaze has grown more than a hundredfold - from 64 hectares to 6,800 hectares (6.8 square kilometres) - in 24 hours.

A state of emergency was declared in West Kelowna on Wednesday, 17 August, due to the blaze which one firefighter described to CBC as the most challenging of his career.