Russian firefighting plane crashes in Turkey

A firefighting plane from Russia crashed Saturday in a mountainous area in southern Turkey, killing the eight crew members and emergency workers aboard, Russia's Defense Ministry said.

The Russian ministry said five Russian and three Turkish citizens were on the amphibious Beriev BE-200, which crashed while trying to land in Turkey's Adana province.

A team to investigate the accident was dispatched to the Kahramanmaras area, Turkish state media said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted he was greatly saddened by the deaths and said their “heroic sacrifices” would not be forgotten.

Turkey has fought some 300 wildfires in the last 16 days that have killed eight other people, consumed forests and homes and sent thousands fleeing.

Kahramanmaras governor Omer Faruk Coskun told state-run news agency Anadolu that a wildfire had begun after lightning struck trees.

The Be-200 is a two-engine amphibious aircraft used in Russia and other nations to fight forest fires.

It is capable of dropping up to 270 metric tons of water in multiple runs during a single mission.

Wildfires in Turkey's Mediterranean region began in late July and have incinerated thousands of acres of forests, mostly in the seaside provinces of Mugla and Antalya.

The fires came as Turkey and the whole Mediterranean endured a prolonged heat wave.

Northern Turkey has been hit this week by flash floods that have killed at least 44 people, turning streets into raging torrents.