ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Firefighters in Turkey battled on Sunday to control wildfires still raging in the resort towns of Manavgat and Marmaris, and some tourists were evacuated from Bodrum on the Aegean coast.
Most of the dozens of blazes that erupted in Turkey in the last five days have been contained, authorities said. However, fires were still blazing in Manavgat in the south and Marmaris in the west, fanned by sweltering heat and winds, Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said.
In the popular resort town of Bodrum, a group of tourists and hotel staff was evacuated by boat as flames spread and plumes of smoke filled the sky. Other tourists had been evacuated in recent days. By Sunday morning, Pakdemirli said the blaze in the area was contained.
Some 107 of the 112 fires that broke out in the past five days in Turkey had been contained as of Sunday morning, according to Forestry Ministry data.
Since Wednesday six people have died because of the fires across southern and western Turkey and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Locals as well as support teams from Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Azerbaijan were deployed to help firefighters.
In neighbouring Greece https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greece-issues-wildfires-warning-over-dangerous-heatwave-2021-07-30, firefighters were trying to contain a wildfire burning in the west of the country that destroyed houses and left 15 citizens in hospital with breathing problems on Saturday, authorities said. Temperatures have been high in much of the country in recent days and are expected to reach 44 degrees on Monday and Tuesday.
On the Italian island of Sicily https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/firemen-fighting-wildfires-sicilian-town-catania-2021-07-31, firemen said on Saturday they were battling for a second straight day wildfires that reached the town of Catania, forcing people to leave their homes and the local airport to temporarily shut down.
(Reporting by Yesim Dikmen in Istanbul and Eleftherios Papadimas in Athens Writing by Ezgi ErkoyunEditing by Frances Kerry and Susan Fenton)
