Four people have died in a wildfire burning in South Korea, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in the country's south-eastern regions, authorities say.
Emergency workers are struggling to contain more than 30 wildfires fuelled by dry winds.
The largest are in the country's south-eastern regions, including the rural county of Sancheong, where 260 people fled to a temporary shelter as flames spread across the surrounding hills, according to the local provincial government.
"Four people — three firefighters and one public servant — have been confirmed to be dead," a fire agency official told AFP.
The Korea Forest Service said the Sancheong wildfire, which started on Friday afternoon, had burned more than 500 hectares by Saturday evening.
Authorities deployed nearly 1,600 emergency workers, 35 helicopters and dozens of vehicles, but only 35 per cent of the blaze was contained due to the area's mountainous terrain and strong winds.
Sancheong, in South Gyeongsang province, is about 250 kilometres south-east of the capital Seoul.
More than 400 people evacuated their homes in the county of Uiseong in North Gyeongsang province, in South Korea's east, as firefighters continued to fight a blaze that had burned 300 hectares, according to the forest service, while dozens of residents also fled their homes in the city of Gimhae.
The interior ministry has declared a state of emergency in the south-eastern city Ulsan, and North and South Gyeongsang provinces, due to "the extensive damage caused by simultaneous wildfires across the country".
The forest agency has issued "severe" fire warnings — its highest warning level — in 12 locations, including North and South Gyeongsang provinces, and major population centres Busan and Daejeon.
The fires have forced the closures of several highway sections in the country's south-east, including one connecting Ulsan and Busan, South Korea's second-largest city.
Choi Sang-mok, South Korea's acting president, urged all-out efforts to extinguish the fire before sunset on Saturday as wildfires were spreading rapidly due to strong winds.
AP/AFP/Reuters
