Bédar (Spain) (AFP) – Eleven people were killed including four suspected to be British, and 19 were missing after a wildfire tore through a rugged area of southern Spain, authorities said Friday.

Authorities said many of the victims may be foreign tourists visiting Bedar, a small whitewashed village in Los Gallardos district, but that they were still confirming their identities.

They described victims trying to flee the fast-moving blaze through difficult, forested terrain, in one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires in recent years.

Located about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Spain’s Mediterranean coast, Bedar is popular with foreign residents and tourists seeking a quieter alternative to the nearby beach resorts. Authorities said the fire had killed 11 people Authorities said the fire had killed 11 people © Handout / INFOCA/AFP

The head of the regional government of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, said four of the people who died were travelling in a right-hand drive car.

“They appear to have been British nationals and were burned to death inside the car,” he told Spanish radio, adding at least 19 people were still unaccounted for.

Bedar mayor Angel Francisco Collado said he urged some residents to flee their homes, “even those who did not want to leave”.

However seven people died while trying to escape on foot and two others were taken to hospital, he added.

Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves more likely and more intense.

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