Unexploded munitions are hampering efforts by firefighters to tackle a blaze in a national park in northern Germany, local officials said Wednesday.
Old munitions buried in the soil from an abandoned military training ground have forced firefighters to stay at least 1,000 metres from the flames, said officials from the Mecklenburg Seenplatte district.
"Emergency services cannot actively put out the fire -- that's the problem," district spokesman Marten Schroeder told AFP of the fire in Müritz National Park.
"This safety distance of 1,000 metres also means that you couldn't drop water from a helicopter, for example, because it would have to fly so high up that the wind would blow the water off course," he added.
Officials warned that the wildfire there was growing after a village had to be evacuated for a second time.
