ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Firefighters battled a forest fire in the northwestern Turkish province of Canakkale on Wednesday as it spread for a second day because of high temperatures and strong wind.
Helicopters and land vehicles worked through the night and Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said more than 1,200 people from nine villages were moved to safety, with 48 people needing medical treatment.
Authorities also moved patients including elderly people from some medical centres as a precaution.
News footage showed raging fames and billowing smoke in hills visible from residential areas. Flames engulfed some abandoned village houses.
Marine traffic in the Dardanelles Strait, a narrow passage connecting the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, was suspended again, the Tribeca shipping agency said, to allow aircraft including helicopters to collect water to douse the flames.
(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; editing by Robert Birsel)
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