Turkey says forest blaze under control

Turkish fire fighters struggle to extinguish fires engulfing in the coastal tourism province of Antalya August 3, 2008. Firefighters brought under control on Tuesday a major forest fire that has engulfed thousands of hectares of woodland in Turkey's tourism heartland.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Firefighters brought under control on Tuesday a major forest fire that has engulfed thousands of hectares of woodland in Turkey's tourism heartland.

Two people have died in the blaze in Antalya province which also killed livestock and destroyed 60 houses, a school, a mosque and dozens of farm buildings. Six villages have been evacuated.

"The fire is totally under control," Forestry Deputy Director General Mustafa Kurtulmuslu said in a statement carried by state Anatolian news agency.

"The fire caused damaged in the region as if an atomic bomb had hit."

The fire, described as Turkey's worst in recent years, has burned at least 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of woodland since July 31.

Officials have made similar claims of success before but strong winds continued to thwart efforts by some 2,000 workers involved in firefighting, backed up by a dozen aircraft.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is due to visit Antalya to inspect the affected area on Tuesday.

Forestry Minister Veysel Eroglu said on Saturday officials thought the blaze was sparked by broken power lines, a claim rejected by state power officials.

The blaze is close to a series of historical sites along the Mediterranean coastline, most notably an ancient Greek amphitheatre in Aspendos, 37 km (23 miles) from the coastal resort of Side.

Antalya has some of Turkey's richest ancient Greek remains and receives the greatest share of tourists to Turkey with 7 million tourists each year, mostly during the summer period.

(Reporting by Paul de Bendern, edited by Richard Meares)