A forest fire broke out in Hulun Buir, a mountainous area of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Wednesday night and had spread to over 1,500 hectares of woods by 6:20 AM yesterday.

Xinhua News Agency reported today that the local government has mobilized 1,387 fire fighters and forest police to the Gaojishan area in the Wunu'er Township of Yakeshi City to put it out.

"The situation is severe," a local official said, adding that due to a strong wind fighting the fire was proving difficult. They planned to use the opportunity of an expected reduction in winds after 7:00 PM to take action.

According to the region's fire fighting office, 1,187 people have already arrived at the site while 200 others are rushing toward it.

The regional government has sent a working team to organize firefighting work and an investigation into the cause of the fire is also underway.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2005)