WILDFIRES continued to ravage South Korea’s south yesterday, killing 24, destroying more than 200 structures and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate, officials reported.

The death toll included a pilot who died after a helicopter crashed during efforts to contain wildfires in the south-eastern town of Uiseong, one of the hardest-hit areas. The aircraft had no other crew members.

The National Fire Agency said at least 26 other people had sustained varying degrees of injuries.

An ancient Buddhist temple, houses, factories and vehicles were among the structures destroyed in wildfires that have burned 43,330 acres, the government's emergency response centre said.

In a televised address, South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo said the wildfires, which began last Friday, were causing worse damage than many other past wildfires.

“Damages are snowballing,” Mr Han said. “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities to put out the wildfires.”

Mr Han said 4,650 firefighters, soldiers and other personnel worked all day yesterday to extinguish the wind driven wildfires with the help of about 130 helicopters. 

The largest fires were in Andong, the neighbouring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan, according to South Korea’s Interior Ministry.