Southern Europe: Forest fires continue to rage

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People flee from the spreading fires - like here in Bodrum, Turkey

Photo: Mehmet Guzel / dpa

For the sixth day in a row, rescue workers in Turkey are still fighting forest and bush fires.

Of 156 fires that broke out, 146 were brought under control, according to the Turkish communications directorate.

The fires are mainly raging on the Mediterranean coast.

The regions of Antalya, Mugla and Adana are particularly affected.

Several regions were evacuated, many villages and areas were destroyed by the flames, and numerous animals could not be saved.

In Turkey, where eight people have been killed so far, a German-Turkish couple also died, as reported by the Turkish media.

The man and the woman were found lifeless on a path near their home in Manavgat in the Antalya region, wrote the government-affiliated Turkish news agency Demirören Haber Ajansi (DHA).

The Federal Foreign Office initially did not confirm the reports on Tuesday.

more on the subject

• Southern Turkey: Worst forest fires in a decade

• Because of forest fires: Dozens of evacuations in tourist areas on the Mediterranean

• Forest fires in Antalya: devastation in vacation paradise

In Italy, too, where violent forest fires raged recently in the south of the country, on the large islands and partly on the Adriatic coast, the situation improved somewhat, as the fire brigade announced. On Tuesday morning, 1130 missions were reported across the country in the past 24 hours due to bushfires. The police arrested two arsonists in Sicily on Monday. The Carabinieri caught the two men red-handed in the central province of Enna, aged 80 and 25, a statement said.

Meanwhile, the historic heat wave continues in Greece. For over a week, the temperatures there have climbed to over 40 degrees for several hours a day. In central Greece and on the Peloponnese peninsula, peak values ​​of up to 46 degrees are still expected from Tuesday to Friday. The fire brigade fought on Tuesday night on the island of Rhodes against a forest and bush fire in a ravine near the village of Maritsa, the village had to be evacuated. Tourist facilities were not threatened.

In Bulgaria, forest and wildfires are also raging at temperatures around 40 degrees and drought.

The south of the Balkan country was particularly affected on Tuesday, where the second highest alert level, orange, was declared.

The fires were brought under control, but the fires could not be completely extinguished, as the media reported in Sofia.

kim / dpa