A fire was burning in a state-level protected forest yesterday in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinhua news agency reported today.

The fire began near Yong'an Mountain in the Great Khingan Range and spread quickly to other areas, the report said.

A fire in one of the other areas has been put out, the report added.

The report did not mention if there had been any injuries.

More than 500 firefighters and forest police have been fighting the blaze around the clock.

Xinhua said they managed to prevent the fire from spreading.

The fire may have been caused by hot weather as the temperature climbed above 30 degrees Celsius in the past few days, the report said.

The Great Khingan Range was hit by a forest fire last month. The two-day blaze was put out on May 8 after nearly 2,000 forest police and firefighters as well as 300 armed police were mobilized to extinguish the fire, said the report.

(Shanghai Daily June 12, 2008)