Officials said it was \u201cnot clear yet when the fire will be under control\u201d but warned it could take several days
\n FRANKFURT
\nLocal officials in Germany were planning more evacuations on Tuesday as forest fires tore through the east of the country in the wake of punishing heatwave.
\nAuthorities in the eastern region of Saxony triggered a \u201cdisaster alert\u201d in the Bad Schandau area, as wildfires spread through the Saxon Switzerland National Park.
\nScientists say climate change is making heatwaves around the world more frequent and more intense, which increases the risk of fires.
\nThe alarm was due to the \u201ccontinuing terrible forest fire situation\u201d in the park, which is close to the border with the Czech Republic, officials said.
\nThe fire broke out on the Czech side of the border in the twin Bohemian Switzerland National Park. Czech authorities evacuated dozens of people from the area on Monday.
\nThe cross-border park is home to rare species such as the Eurasian lynx and the peregrine falcon.
\nForest fires were also raging in the neighboring region of Brandenburg, to the north of Saxony. Officials declared a \u201cdisaster situation\u201d there on Monday afternoon.
\nAuthorities in the Elbe-Elstar area said they were planning further evacuations on Tuesday as the blaze spread. They have already removed around 700 people from the surrounding zone.
\nOfficials said it was \u201cnot clear yet when the fire will be under control\u201d but warned it could take several days.
\nAround 350 people were involved in fighting the blaze, which had spread to cover 850 hectares (2,100 acres), the officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officials said it was \u201cnot clear yet when the fire will be under control\u201d but warned it could take several days FRANKFURT Local officials in Germany were planning more evacuations on Tuesday as forest fires tore through the east of the country in the wake of punishing heatwave. Authorities in the eastern region of Saxony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9860,8650,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-273761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-evacuations","9":"tag-forest-fires","10":"tag-germany"},"yoast_head":"\n