South Korea says 18 dead in raging wildfires

ANDONG, SOUTH KOREA — At least 18 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple raging blazes causing "unprecedented damage", the acting president said Wednesday.

More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast, forcing around 27,000 people to urgently evacuate, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents fled in panic.

Overnight into Wednesday, the death toll jumped as wind-driven flames tore through neighbourhoods and razed an ancient temple. 

"Eighteen people died in the wildfires," a ministry of safety official told AFP.

According to the interior ministry, the wildfires have charred 17,398 hectares, with the blaze in Uiseong county alone accounting for 87 per cent of the total.

The government has raised the crisis alert to its highest level and taken the rare step of transferring thousands of prisoners.

"Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day... is causing unprecedented damage," South Korea's acting president Han Duck-soo said.

He told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were "developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations."

"Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked," he added. 

In the city of Andong, some evacuees sheltering in an elementary school gym told AFP they had to flee so quickly they could bring nothing with them. 

"The wind was so strong," Kwon So-han, a 79-year-old resident in Andong told AFP, adding that as soon as he got the evacuation order he fled.

"The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house," he said.

"Those who haven't experienced it won't know. I could only bring my body."

'Most devastating' 

By Wednesday, one of the fires was threatening historic Hahoe Folk Village, a UNESCO-listed world heritage site popular with tourists but now under an emergency alert.

Thousands of firefighters have been deployed, but "strong winds reaching speeds of 25 metres per second persisted from yesterday afternoon through the night, forcing the suspension of helicopter and drone operations," Han said.

The changing wind patterns and dry weather have "revealed the limitations of conventional firefighting methods," he added.

Hundreds of soliders have joined the effort, with helicopter support also provided by US forces stationed in the South.

The fires are "the most devastating" yet in South Korea, Han said.