Wildfires have claimed up to 11 lives and inflicted widespread damage in southeastern Turkiye, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca declared on Friday, in an updated statement.
The minister, in the new statement on his X account, said 11 people perished and 78 others suffered injuries, including five in critical condition, due to the flames that raged in Yazici in Diyarbakir, Koksal, the villages of Yojibaij and Wikilner in Mardin.
Firefighters have doused the flames but continue to cool the scorched earth in the sticken regions, he added.
Minister of Interior Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement the blazes had first erupted in Koksal late on Thursday and spread to the other regions, driven by gales.
Authorities have barred barbecues in wooded areas and public parks during the summer. Other precautionary measures against fires have also been taken.
Source: Kuwait News Agency