A huge forest fire is burning outside Berlin, where hundreds are being forced to evacuate, authorities say. Efforts have been hampered by unexploded munitions located in the forest. Some blasts have already been heard.

Some 600 firefighters are currently battling the wildfire around 50km outside the German capital, Brandenburg Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroter said, as quoted by local media. Helicopters and water cannons have been deployed at the scene.

Unexploded munitions in the forest are also complicating the firefighting efforts, officials say. “We know there is ammunition lying around in the forest,” local politician Guenther Baaske said, adding that some blasts had been heard in the area.

Entire populations in the villages of Frohnsdorf, Klausdorf and Tiefenbrunnen have been ordered to evacuate. “We’ve had forest fires before but never of this magnitude,” Treuenbrietzen Mayor Michael Knappe said. More than 500 people had already fled their homes due to the heavy blaze.

Raimund Engel, the Brandenburg commissioner with responsibility for forest fires, described the situation as “dramatic.” He said that the blaze had developed into a “full fire” that spread into the treetops.

The Berlin fire service said that smoke also blanketed the German capital and urged city residents to shut their windows and doors. It added that, due to the smell of burning, the firefighters were responding to “a great many emergency calls and reports of fires.”

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