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Heavy rains swept across northeastern Romania overnight into Monday, causing flash floods that killed at least one person and forced hundreds to flee, as neighbouring Turkey and Albania continued to deal with widespread wildfires amid extreme summer conditions.
Emergency authorities in Romania said the counties of Neamț and Suceava were worst affected, with rescue teams deploying helicopters and firefighters to assist stranded residents.
A total of 890 people were evacuated from Neamț alone, according to the Romanian Department for Emergency Situations.
A 66-year-old man was found dead at the bottom of a stream in the town of Neagra, officials confirmed. Video footage released by authorities showed muddy waters, smashed vehicles and damaged homes.
In Turkey, where wildfires have been raging since late June, Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı has warned of continued danger.
“We are in a very risky week,” he said to reporters in Ankara on Monday.
Fires broke out over the weekend near Bursa, Turkey’s fourth-largest city. While one blaze northeast of the city was largely extinguished, a second fire to the south was still active but had been “significantly reduced,” Yumaklı said.
He also noted that a six-day fire in Karabük in the northwest had calmed, and flames in Kahramanmaraş in the south were mostly under control.
In Bursa, a water tanker carrying volunteer firefighters overturned on a remote forest track en route to a blaze in the village of Ağlasan. According to local agency İHA, one firefighter died at the scene, while two others, initially rescued from the wreckage and hospitalised, later passed away.
In a separate incident, a firefighter died of a heart attack while combating another fire on Sunday. In total, 17 people have now died as a result of the wildfires over the past month, including 10 forestry workers and rescue volunteers killed last week in a fire in Eskişehir.
More than 3,500 people were evacuated around Bursa as the fires spread. While residential damage has been limited, vast forest areas have been destroyed.
Unseasonably high temperatures, drought conditions and strong winds continue to fuel the blazes, with the government having previously declared disaster zones in the western provinces of İzmir and Bilecik.
Minister Yumaklı said firefighting teams responded to at least 44 fires across the country on Sunday. Meanwhile, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç revealed that 97 individuals across 33 provinces are under investigation in connection with the blazes.
Further west, Albania is also fighting with intense wildfire activity. Albanian Defence Ministry reported six separate fires on Monday, following two weeks of wildfires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of forest.
The worst-hit regions are in the northeast, where inaccessible mountain plateaus have required the use of water-dropping aircraft. In the south, strong overnight winds reignited fires in Delvinë and Konispol, both located in the Himarë district along the Adriatic coast, areas that had already suffered fire damage last week.
Albanian authorities said at least 12 people were arrested over the weekend in connection with the blazes.
Additional sources • AP
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