Photo : Collected
A huge wildfire that swept through several villages in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey overnight killed 11 people, authorities said Friday (21 June).
Hundreds of animals also perished in the blaze that roared across the dry landscape, sending flames into the night sky. By morning the fire had left huge areas of charred and blackened land in several areas of Diyarbakir and Mardin provinces.
"11 people lost their lives", Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on X, a figure up from the previously reported five. He said 78 people were affected by the fires, adding that five patients were under intensive care.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party, which won many municipalities in the southeast in the March 31 local elections, criticised the government's intervention as "late and insufficient".
During the night, DEM had urged the government to send water bombers, saying
fighting the blaze from the ground was "not enough".
An AFP reporter in Koksalan village in Diyarbakir province saw around 100 animals lying dead on the ground.
Messenger/Sourov
