Tunisia witnessed in recent days a wide wave of forest, grass and crop fires, coinciding with a severe heatwave and dry 'Shehili' winds, while civil protection teams continue extinguishing and rescue operations to limit the spread of flames to new areas.

The significant rise in temperatures and dry winds contributed to accelerating the spread of fires and their approach in some areas to homes and residential clusters, while civil protection announced about 600 fires within 48 hours, at a rate of one fire every five minutes.

The major fires concentrated in several northern and western regions, where flames consumed large areas of vegetation and caused damage to some properties, without recording human losses.

Tunisian authorities announced on Wednesday control of the fire that broke out in coastal forests between Rafraf and Ghar al-Milh in Bizerte governorate in the north of the country, after firefighting operations lasting more than 16 hours.

The Bizerte governorate explained, in a statement, that civil protection teams managed at five o'clock on Wednesday morning to extinguish the fire that broke out on Tuesday afternoon in the forest area extending between Rafraf and Sidi Ali al-Makki in Ghar al-Milh city, confirming continued field monitoring to prevent the fire from reigniting, especially with the ongoing heatwave and wind.

The governorate added that the fire did not result in any human losses, noting the deployment of fire trucks around houses adjacent to the forest, and calling on residents in some areas to temporarily evacuate for their safety and to facilitate firefighting operations.

In the same context, authorities deployed additional firefighting vehicles and trucks to threatened areas, while maintaining a state of alert in anticipation of new fires.

Tunisia is experiencing an exceptional heatwave with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees Celsius in most areas. According to the Tunisian Observatory for Weather and Climate, an independent body, the city of Kairouan recorded 49.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, making it the second hottest city in the world that day, after the Saudi city of Yanbu, where the temperature reached 50 degrees Celsius.

For its part, the National Institute of Meteorology reported that temperatures will see, as of Wednesday, a slight decrease in coastal areas, while remaining high in other regions, with a difference ranging between 6 and 12 degrees Celsius above normal rates, with expectations of thunderstorm cells and scattered rain in the western regions of the north and center.