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Evacuees transported in landing craft to military ships in Mallacoota, January 3, 2020. Image PAA / Provided by the Department of Defense, Shane Cameron

In Australia, hundreds of people were evacuated Friday evening January 3 by the navy of the city of Mallacoota, in the south-east of the country surrounded by forest fires.

With our correspondent in Sydney , Grégory Plesse

About 1,200 people, but also 250 pets, were taken to Mallacoota aboard a navy ship to take them to a safe place about 500 kilometers west.

Several dozen people, those who are very weak, but also the sick were helicoptered by the army during the day.

But the urgency is also in New South Wales and precisely in the region of the South Coast where a real race against the clock has started for thousands of people on the spot who have to leave an area that is stretches for about 200 kilometers because that is where the fires on Saturday will be the most violent.

The roads in the area are therefore very congested. Petrol stations and supermarkets are under assault, as firefighters have said and repeated all day: they cannot put out the fires that are underway, and their priority on Saturday will be to preserve human lives.

It is only on Sunday when the weather conditions improve a little that they will set off again to fight against these fires.

► Read also: Fires in Australia: massive evacuations before a new heat peak