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At least 11 people were killed after a forest fire broke out Thursday in Los Gallardos municipality in Almeria province, located in Spain’s southern Andalusia region, according to broadcaster RTVE.
The victims were found in a hamlet, a small settlement, in the neighboring municipality of Bedar, Andalusia’s emergency services said. Some of them were discovered inside vehicles that had been engulfed by the flames.
Antonio Sanz, Andalusia’s acting minister for health, the presidency and emergencies, described the blaze as “the fire with the greatest consequences to date” in the region.
He also called it an “unprecedented tragedy,” as authorities continued identification efforts and provisionally revised the death toll from 12 to 11.
As the fire continued to spread, Andalusian authorities raised the region’s wildfire response plan to the emergency phase.
Spain’s Military Emergency Unit, known as UME, deployed 150 personnel to support firefighting efforts, while heavy smoke and flames forced the closure of two major roads in the province.
In a separate incident, around 1,000 people were evacuated as a precaution after another forest fire broke out Thursday afternoon in the southern province of Malaga.
That fire remained active, with nearly 180 personnel working to stabilize the blaze.
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