TURKEY has been ravaged by fresh wildfires with over 1,700 civilians forced to flee their homes.
A firefighter has died as they battled the rising flames which come amid a number of terrifying and deadly fires across the country.
GettyCivilians run for their lives as the flames threaten to take over residential areas[/caption]
GettyFlames rise as firefighting efforts continue in Orhaneli district of Bursa[/caption]
AFPFlames rise from a forested area in the Gursu district[/caption]
GettyHomes have been engulfed by flames[/caption]
Residents in Bursa were alerted of the serious fires early on Sunday.
Flames broke out in forested mountainous areas in northwest Turkey as they rapidly spread across the region.
The Bursa governor’s office said in a statement that 1,765 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast.
At least 76 fires were recorded nationwide across the past 24 hours with major blazes still active in Bursa, Karabuk, Usak, and Kahramanmaras.
More than 1,100 firefighters have been drafted in to help save those still trapped and to extinguish the flames.
They are equipped with water tankers, helicopters, aircraft, and TOMA riot control vehicles.
Fears are also surrounding the highway linking Bursa to the capital of Ankara after it was closed on Sunday with the fires burning through the surrounding woodlands.
The flames have scorched 7,413 acres around the city so far, according to the city’s mayor, Mustafa Bozbey.
Orhan Saribal, a local MP in the province, described the scene as an apocalypse.
The fires have been fanned by strong winds which are pushing them closer towards residential areas.
Turkey has been hit by a number of wildfires in recent weeks.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the country faces “a truly great disaster” as dozens of regions have been decimated.
New wildfires broke out on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast on Friday, as the government declared two western provinces in the country to be “disaster zones”.
East of Antalya, fires broke out in Adana and Mersin on Friday.
Elsewhere in the country, firefighters continued battling blazes in Eskisehir and nearby Karabuk that have been raging for several days.
Images showed flames and smoke billowing into the sky close to high-rise apartment buildings in Antalya, where local and foreign visitors flock during the summer months.
Over in Cyprus, civilians are still dealing with the worst wildfires in the last 50 years amid a 44C heatwave across the island.
Two people were burnt alive and more than 70 houses were destroyed this week.
GettyThe flames have continued to grow dangerously close to homes in the Safranbolu district of Karabuk[/caption]
AFPThe fires are still raging across several regions in Turkey[/caption]