With wildfires raging for days in the country’s southern areas, about 23-thousand people were forced to evacuate their homes in seven cities and counties in northeastern North Gyeongsang Province between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. 

According to the provincial government on Wednesday, more than ten thousand residents of Cheongsong County, almost half the county’s population, were evacuated overnight.

More than 43-hundred residents were evacuated in Yeongdeok along with some four thousand in Andong, 27-hundred in Uiseong, 15-hundred in Yeongyang and 285 in Uljin.

Local governments ordered residents of those areas to evacuate to nearby schools, community centers or gyms to escape the rapidly spreading fires.