At least 12 people have been killed in one of southern Spain’s worst-ever wildfires, local officials said Friday, as tragic stories emerge of victims’ attempts to flee the inferno.
More than 460 emergency workers have been deployed to battle the fire near the town of Los Gallardos on Costa de Almería, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Friday. At least 1,405 residents had been evacuated from their homes, said Antonio Sanz, the minister for health and emergencies in the region, which is popular among tourists.
“The most devastating fire to date in our region,” he said.
At least eight people are injured, four of them seriously, Grande-Marlaska said.
Andalusia’s regional leader Juanma Moreno said earlier Friday that at least 23 people were missing, but Grande-Marlaska later suggested those numbers were preliminary and that officials have received three official reports of missing people.
