Fire apparently started

Forest fires near Plansee: suspect (36) in custody

The emergency services have been battling the fires since early Thursday afternoon.(Bild: zoom.tirol)

Since early Thursday afternoon, fire departments and helicopter crews have been battling forest fires near Plansee in the Tyrolean Außerfern. It has now been revealed that the fires were apparently started. One suspect (36) has already been unmasked. He is in custody.

Within an hour, several fires broke out in different places on the Plansee. "Some of the fires had spread into impassable terrain, which made firefighting work very difficult for the alerted firefighters and even had to be stopped at times due to the risk of falling rocks," said the police.

Tens of thousands of square meters affected
At around 7 p.m., the extinguishing work on the ground and from the air had to be stopped due to the onset of darkness. The operation was finally resumed early on Friday morning. According to initial estimates, around 30,000 square meters were affected by the fires.

More details shortly!