UK heatwave: See extent of wildfire devastation at Norfolk's BBC Springwatch reserve Wild Ken Hill

Drone footage has revealed the devastation caused by wildfire at a nature reserve which is home to thousands of wildlife species.

Acres of charred and blackened vegetation can be seen still smoking at the Wild Ken Hill coastal park between Snettisham and Heacham on the west Norfolk coast.

The area - seen by millions each year on the BBC's Springwatch programme - is usually lush and green, offering sanctuary to avocets and bar-tailed godwits as well as many other wildfowl and wading birds.

The blaze broke out on the Snettisham Coastal Park, which neighbours the RSPB Snettisham reserve, at around 11.30am on Tuesday.

Hours later, Andrew Waddison, of Wild Ken Hill, shared the drone footage of the smouldering remains of the site which borders Heacham beach, the River Heacham and a number of camping sites.

Captioned simply "devastating", it shows smoke billowing out to sea hours after crews began tackling the fire.

One witness took to Twitter to say: "I'm at the beach. It's literally on fire between Snettisham and Heacham. It is horrendous."

The reserve is described as an "internationally important area providing refuge for vast numbers of wildfowl and wading birds".

The fire is one of several wildfires across the region which have been raging in the hot weather.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue tweeted that it was dealing with a number of hedge and field fires.

On Monday night Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service had to deal with a large grass fire at Ravenswood in Ipswich.

Multiple crews from Ipswich and Felixstowe were called to the scene.

At the weekend Essex firecrews battled for hours to get control of a wildfire which raged over 400 acres of fields.

The blaze near the M11 in Essex also tore through a disused building and was tackled by 15 crews at its peak, along with specialist vehicles and an urban search and rescue team.