Berlin: A forest fire near the Brocken mountain, northern Germany’s highest peak, has spread extensively over the past few hours, officials said Sunday evening. The blaze broke out on Saturday afternoon on the southern side of the mountain, which sits in the Harz National Park, sparking the evacuation of hundreds of tourists. Public broadcaster MDR said the fire had more than doubled in just a few hours on Sunday from around 60 to 130 hectares (150 to 320 acres) and was expected to spread further. This compares with Saturday evening, just a few hours after the blaze started when it was reported to have covered just four hectares. The fire is “not under control,” Thomas Balcerowski, the administrator in the district of Harz, said. Balcerowski said that the fire would likely take several days to extinguish but that the nearby town of Schierke is not at risk.
