Death toll reaches 14 as wildfires devastate Turkey

Flames are closing in on Turkey's fourth-largest city as wildfires that have killed at least 14 people continue to ravage the country.

- BRYONY GOOCH

More than 1,500 people have fled their homes and one firefighter has died as fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa, in northwestern Turkey, have spread rapidly.

Flames have scorched 3,000 hectares around the city as more than 1,100 firefighters have battled the flames, while the highway linking the city to the country's capital, Ankara, has been closed as surrounding forests burn.

A firefighter died from a heart attack while on the job, the city's mayor, Mustafa Bozbey, said in a statement. The governor's office stated yesterday that 1,765 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast. Orhan Saribal, an opposition parliamentarian for the province, described the scene as “an apocalypse”.