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Fires still not extinguished, and still fought by firefighters. Already more than five million hectares have gone up in smoke and seventeen people have died in total.
With our correspondent in Sydney, Grégory Plesse
The new year has just started, but the toll is already heavy in Australia. This morning, the capital Canberra woke up in a cloud of smoke. The air quality in this city of 300,000 inhabitants is today the poorest in the world.
Landing on instruments today ... this is Canberra, 6pm in summer pic.twitter.com/zxFJGWyxZA
MarnieHW (@Marnie_HW) January 1, 2020In Sydney, the fireworks took place in a polluted atmosphere due to the fires that have ravaged the east of the country since September. The smoke generated even reached the coasts of New Zealand, which is located 2,000 kilometers from Australia.
In the South Coast region alone, very close to Canberra, more than 200 homes have been destroyed. A father and son also lost their lives there. A third person died yesterday in the state of New South Wales, police confirmed this morning that they had found a body.
►Read also: Australia: in Mallacoota, residents surrounded by flames
Hundreds of other people are said to have spent the night on the beach, not to taste the joys of a midnight swim, but to escape the flames. This is the case in the city of Mallacoota whose 4,000 inhabitants remain cut off from the world this morning. The army provides their supplies by helicopter. At least 50 homes have been destroyed across the state of Victoria. And the balance sheet should get even heavier during the day.