WW3 fears explode as Putin moves warship near major tourist island

Tensions are boiling over as Vladimir Putin deploys a stealth Zircon missile frigate to European waters while threatening attacks on Western shipping.

The Admiral Kasatonov - a frigate fitted with nuclear-capable Zircon hypersonic missiles - was spotted close to Fehmarn, a small tourist island in the Baltic Sea off the northeast coast of Germany.

The blaze now torching Belgium has far surpassed a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometres in the same area

Within hours, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the prime minister's comments, saying they "cause extreme outrage and are absolutely unacceptable".