Southern Turkey is Burning
Three people have died following wildfires in southern Turkey, with officials investigating the causes of almost 60 blazes.
A 15-year-old also died in blazes in Lebanon, which have spread northwards into Syria.
According to Turkish agriculture and forestry minister Bekir Pakdemirli, a total of 53 forest fires were recorded on Wednesday and Thursday in the Mediterranean and southern Aegean regions.
An 82-year-old man was among the three who died in Antalya after flames tore through the district of Akseki, 30 miles north Manavgat, on Turkey‘s southern coast, opposite Cyprus.
Around 20 villages and neighbourhoods were evacuated, and 50 people were taken to hospital.
Another 16 locations in Turkey had fires, including holiday destinations such as Guvercinlik and the Icmeler region.
State-owned National News Agency said the fires have spread across four miles, and were 1.2 miles wide, and that tens of thousands of pine trees had gone up in smoke.
The country previously battled devastating wildfires in 2019, with the government’s poor handling of the matter among the reasons which fuelled country-wide protests.
The Mediterranean is not the only part of the world to battle fires this summer in the northern hemisphere.
Siberia is battling blazes in its forests, amplified by a dry climate.
A town in Canada was destroyed after a forest fire swept through in just a few hours.
And the west coast of the United States looks set for another torrid fire season, with fires engulfing parts of California and Oregon.
