THIS is the chilling moment a man who allegedly sparked a devastating wildfire in Turkey was seen filling bottles with petrol at a gas station.
Surveillance video captured the alleged arsonist acting suspiciously as he carried bottles originally filled with water, which he emptied and then refilled with a flammable liquid.
The clip shows a man, now identified by authorities as Ufuk Aytekin, arriving at a gas station in his pickup truck.
He is then seen getting out of his vehicle and pouring what looks like water into potted flowers.
He then proceeds to the pump and fills the five-litre cans with gasoline before leaving the station.
The suspect was later identified by the Counter-Terrorism Branch of the Bursa Provincial Police Department and subsequently arrested for allegedly igniting a wildfire that has been raging for several days.
He is now being investigated as it is alleged he sparked a fire in the village of Kışmanlar.
The suspect appeared to have burns on his arms and legs, and his phone was reportedly found burned in the woods by police.
Aytekin, who has an extensive criminal history and claimed he was expelled from his home by his family, admitted to starting the fire during his initial confession, according to CNN Turkey.
It comes as raging wildfires continue to rip through the country.
Firefighters battled blazes across Turkey on Monday as the country sweltered in a summer heatwave, with wildfires leading to at least 14 deaths in the country in the past week.
Around 20 villages have been evacuated, officials said. More than 3,500 people were forced to leave their homes.
Temperatures had already soared to a record high of 50.5 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country.
The heatwave has fueled the forest fires on the dry ground that have spread rapidly in windy conditions.
Authorities warned that a “risky week” lies ahead as temperatures continue to soar beyond record levels.
Firefighters tackled blazes around Bursa in the northwest on Monday, the country’s fourth-largest city and a major industrial centre, for the third consecutive day.
Their efforts were hampered by strong winds fanning the flames, according to Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli.
The flames have scorched 7,413 acres around the city so far, according to Bozbey.
At least 84 fires have been recorded nationwide over the past 24 hours, with major blazes still active in Bursa, Karabuk, Usak and Kahramanmaras.
In Karabuk, wildfires raging since Tuesday have forced the evacuation of 1,839 people from 19 villages.
New wildfires broke out on Turkey‘s Mediterranean coast on Friday, as the government declared two western provinces in the country to be “disaster zones”.
East of Antalya, fires broke out in Adana and Mersin on Friday.
Images showed flames and smoke billowing into the sky close to high-rise apartment buildings in Antalya, where local and foreign visitors flock during the summer months.
Homes were evacuated in the city centre and the outlying district of Aksu as the fire advanced, news agency DHA reported.
Firefighters struggled to extinguish the blazes before strong winds could spread the fire, which closed a major coastal road.
Further along the coast, homes in the city of Manavgat were also threatened.
Local residents with hoses and buckets rushed to assist firefighters as water-dropping helicopters and planes also battled the flames.
Police water cannons and municipal water trucks were also enlisted in the firefighting efforts.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the country faced “a truly great disaster” after 25,000 people got involved in the emergency effort.
In a televised speech after a weekly cabinet meeting, he said 96 per cent of the fires were caused by human activity such as cigarette butts and picnic fires.
There were also a few cases of sabotage, he said.
