ALGIERS, July 24 (DPA/EP) –
At least 15 people have died Monday in Algeria due to forest fires caused by a heat wave, which other countries in the region are also facing, which has forced the evacuation of some 1,500 people.
The Ministry of the Interior has added that some 30 people have been injured due to the fires that started on Sunday in about fifteen provinces, after the winds moved the fire to residential areas.
The authorities have deployed some 7,500 members of the emergency services to help the population. Subsequently, they have reported the death of ten soldiers, although they have not specified whether they are part of the first number of fifteen deaths.
In neighboring Tunisia, firefighters have been working to put out fires that broke out in forest areas in the west of the country near the Algerian border. Temperatures have reached 48 degrees in the capital of the same name and in the coastal city of Bizerte, the highest ever recorded.
