Two dead as forest fires burn in Syria, Lebanon

DAMASCUS: Forest fires in Syria and neighbouring Lebanon have killed two people and burned swathes of land since Thursday, state media and officials said.

Syrian state television on Saturday morning broadcast scenes from the affected areas, where firefighters were working to extinguish the blazes. It said hundreds of hectares had burned in the countryside of Syria’s coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, and in the central Homs province.

The health ministry said two people died in Latakia province on Friday as a result of the fires, and that 70 people in the area were taken to hospital suffering breathing difficulties. Dozens of fires were burning, including “45 in Latakia and 33 in Tartus”, Syria’s Agriculture Minister Mohammed Hassan Qatana told a radio station on Friday.

The Latakia fire brigade said they were “facing the largest series of fires seen in Latakia province in years”. Official news agency SANA said fire burned homes in Banias, in Tartus province.

In Lebanon, more than 100 fires have raged across the country, according to the head of operations for the country’s civil defence.