ATHENS (Reuters) -Firefighters battled to put out wildfires on Monday in three separate provinces in Turkey and near a tourist resort in Albania, stoked by strong winds after days of searing heat across the Mediterranean region.
Smoke billowed over the mountainous Black Sea province of Karabuk, some 200 kilometres north of the capital Ankara, as a wildfire which raged for a sixth day forced the evacuation of more than a dozen villages and burnt swathes of forests.
In the northwestern province of Bursa, three firefighters were killed on Sunday when their vehicle crashed, Turkey’s Forestry Ministry said on Monday. Crews fought to tame two separate blazes there on Monday, following the evacuation of more more than 3,600 people from settlements in the southern provinces of Mersin and Antalya.
Turkey has seen dozens of wildfires in recent weeks amid extreme heat, while 10 firefighters were killed last week battling a fire in the central Eskisehir province.
Hot and dry summers have been common in the Mediterranean region, but more intense heatwaves have contributed to destructive wildfires in recent years amid fast-rising temperatures across the globe.
In Albania, firefighters assisted by the army battled to control a wildfire before it reached the seaside city of Saranda and other tourist resorts in the couth of the country on the Ionian coast.
Some 13 people have been arrested over arson-related offenses in the past three days, local police said.
Bulgaria deployed firefighting planes to help ground forces tame a large wildfire in a wooded southwestern area, while in Greece, several villages were evacuated and five people were injured in separate wildfires over the weekend under scorching heat and strong winds.
As Greece saw off its third summer heatwave on Monday, rainy weather in Serbia helped firefighters there bring more than 100 wildfires under control.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by David Holmes)
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