Turkey evacuates thousands as firefighters battle wildfires

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ANKARA (Reuters) -Firefighters battled wildfires across Turkey on Sunday amid a searing Mediterranean heat-wave, with authorities evacuating more than 3,600 people from settlements in two provinces.

Wildfires in the southern provinces of Mersin and Antalya as well as the central province of Usak were largely brought under control, but blazes in the northwestern province of Bursa and the northern province of Karabuk were still burning, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters.

A wildfire broke out in a forested area between the Gursu and Kestel districts of Bursa, home to much of Turkey’s auto industry, on Saturday. Part of a highway connecting Istanbul with the western city of Izmir was briefly closed on Saturday night due to the fire.

Huge flames engulfed trees in areas close to homes in Bursa as smoke covered the sky over the city, footage showed.

Some 1,765 people in Bursa’s Kestel district were evacuated, Yumakli said, adding that 2,000 firefighters were struggling to battle the wildfire in the area with the help of six firefighting planes and four helicopters.

In the northern province of Karabuk, where a large wildfire has been burning for five days, 1,839 people in 19 villages were evacuated, Yumakli said. Three planes and 16 helicopters are tackling the blazes in the area amid difficult conditions, he added.

“We are going through risky times. This does not seem likely to end in two or three days,” Yumakli said, referring to the heat-wave.

Temperatures in several regions in Turkey were forecast to reach over 40 degrees Celsius on Sunday, 6 to 12 degrees above seasonal norms, Turkey’s meteorological service said, as thermometers hit 50 degrees Celsius in the country’s southeast on Saturday for the first time in recorded history.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; editing by Giles Elgood)