Wildfires

Wildfires - Australia

Australian firefighters warned they were in "uncharted territory" as they struggled to contain dozens of out-of-control bushfires across the east of the country on Friday. Around a hundred blazes pockmarked the New South Wales and Queensland countryside, around 19 of them dangerous and uncontained.

The fact the blazes were spread along a roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) stretch of the seaboard left emergency services struggling to cope, even with the help of around 70 aircraft. In New South Wales, authorities said fires had breached containment lines and forced the closure of the Pacific Highway linking Sydney and Brisbane in two places, although one area has since reopened.