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At least 35 people have been killed by wildfires blazing through Victoria in Australia as the southeastern state suffers its worst blazes for 25 years.
Many people are believed to have died in their cars as they tried to escape the fires, which have destroyed hundreds of homes and 100,000 hectares of forest and farmland.
More than 3,000 firefighters together with army units were struggling to get dozens of blazes, which officials believe may have been started deliberately, under control.
Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and ash raining from the skies.
The 35 victims of the fires were confirmed dead at a dozen locations, Sarah Campbell, a spokeswoman for the police in Victoria, said on Sunday.
Record temperatures
Dozens of blazes were also raging in New South Wales. Both states have been gripped in a heatwave for the past two weeks.
Fierce winds were fanning the fires and pushing them in unpredictable directions in Victoria on Saturday, as temperatures reached a state record of 47 degrees Celsius.
Forecasters said hot and uncertain weather conditions would continue on Sunday.
Blair Trewin, a climatologist with the National Climate Centre in Melbourne, told Al Jazeera: "They are the most extreme conditions that we have ever seen in historic record in parts of southeastern Australia.
"We are seeing an upward trend in temperatures in Australia as elsewhere in the world."
A wildfire killed 75 people and razed 2,500 homes in Victoria in 1983.
PHOTO CAPTION
A satellite image shows smoke emerging from fires in southeastern Australia January 30, 2009.
Al-Jazeera
