Wildfires that have engulfed Turkey for weeks are threatening the country's fourth-largest city, forcing more than 3,500 people to flee their homes and leaving two people dead.
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See subscription optionsGreece, Italy, Bulgaria and Montenegro are also battling blazes fed by unusually high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.
Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa, in northwest Turkey, spread rapidly, tinting the night sky over the city's eastern suburbs with a red glow. Dozens of severe wildfires have hit the country daily since late June, with the government declaring the two western provinces of Izmir and Bilecik as disaster areas on Friday.
Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters late Sunday that 3,515 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast of Bursa as more than 1,900 firefighters battled the flames. The highway linking Bursa to the capital, Ankara, was closed as surrounding forests burned.
A firefighter died from a heart attack while on the job, the city's mayor, Mustafa Bozbey. One person was killed and two seriously injured when a water tanker fell into a ravine outside Bursa, local media reported.
Yumakli said fire crews across the country confronted 84 separate blazes Saturday. The country's northwest was under the greatest threat, including Karabuk, where wildfires have burned since Tuesday and 1,839 people have been evacuated from 19 villages.
Fifteen people have died in recent weeks, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir in western Turkey.
In Greece, firefighters battled active wildfires in the country's southwest and on the island of Kythera on Sunday, following a blaze that scorched the northern Athens suburb of Kryoneri on Saturday. High temperatures, reaching 38 C (100 F) or more, persist across much of the country, though winds have eased slightly.
In Kryoneri, 27 residents were evacuated overnight with police assistance after some initially ignored warnings. Authorities urged the public to comply with evacuation orders, warning that resistance puts both civilians and rescuers in danger.
In Sardinia dozens of beachgoers were forced to flee by boat when a huge wildfire broke out nearby, blocking other escape routes, firefighters on the Italian island said.
Black smoke could be seen rising from the beach in Villasimius in the south of the island.
On Bulgaria's southern borders with Greece and Turkey, as well as the western Serbian frontier, firefighters battled wildfires as the government declared the worst-hit provinces disaster zones. Residents across nearly half the country were issued with a code red warning, the highest level.
National Fire Service chief Alexander Djartov told reporters that 236 wildfires were burning, many fanned by strong winds. The government had asked EU partners for help, he added, and aircraft were expected from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Hungary and Sweden later Sunday.
"It's a merciless tragedy," emergency volunteer Zvezdelin Vlaykov said as huge clouds of smoke rose over the hills in western Bulgaria,. "In all my years of firefighting, I've never seen anything like it."
Australian Associated Press
