Wildfires driven by dry weather and winds were ravaging southern South Korea, killing 18 people, destroying 200 structures and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate.

At least 18 people have died as multiple wildfires rage across South Korea's southeastern region, with thousands of firefighters aided by the military deployed in a bid to contain one of the country's worst forest fires in decades.

Officials in the South Korean city of Andong have alerted residents to evacuate to safe areas as firefighters struggled to contain wildfires that ravaged the country’s southern regions since last week,