503 forest fires rage in Russia

503 forest fires covering an aggregate space of more than 22,000 hectares were registered in Russia over the past 24 hours, a source in the Information Department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry told RIA Novosti on Monday.

According to the ministry's information, the largest number of forest fires was registered in the Irkutsk and Chita regions, Siberia. It was 213 fires, 7 of them large, and 199, 73 large, respectively.

52 fires, 2 of them large, were reported from the Krasnoyarsk territory, Siberia, 32, 5 large, from Buryatia, 16, 6 large, from the Khabarovsk territory, and 25 from the Amur region, Far East.

The firefighting effort throughout the country involves 6,000 people, almost 1,000 pieces of ground-based equipment, and 76 aircraft.

All in all, since the beginning of the fire-hazardous season, forest fires in Russia have burned out almost 933,000 hectares of land.