Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that the wildfires have claimed 11 lives and left 78 people injured, with five individuals in critical condition.
The blazes overnight, fueled by soaring temperatures and strong winds, have wreaked havoc on several neighborhoods in the outskirts of the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir and Mardin.
Videos circulating on social media show the blazes engulfing vast areas, with flames lighting up the night sky.
Diyarbakır'ın Çınar ile Mardin'in Mazıdağı ilçeleri arasındaki bölgede dün gece meydana gelen yangın felaketinde hayatını kaybeden 5 vatandaşımıza Yüce Allah’tan rahmet, yaralı vatandaşlarımıza acil şifa dilerim.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said later Friday that the wildfires have been brought under control, adding that cooling efforts were ongoing.
According to local media reports, hundreds of cattle and sheep also perished in the blaze.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said that an investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fires. Local news outlets reported that the wildfires were ignited by stubble burning, a common agricultural practice in Turkey.
Turkey has been grappling with wildfires across the country since last week due to hot temperatures soaring up to 10 C (50 F) above the seasonal average. Temperatures reached as high as 50 C (120 F) in the country’s coastal areas.
More than 55 wildfires have erupted across the country since Saturday, according to the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.
The fire started with the burning of crop stubble. Fanned by winds, it moved quickly through the villages of Koksalan, Yazcicegi and Bagacik.
Images posted on social media showed a huge blaze lighting up the night sky with vast clouds of smoke billowing into the air.
Four emergency teams and 35 ambulances were sent to the scene. By Friday, firefighters had managed to bring the blaze under control, according to Diyarbakir Governor Ali Ihsan Su.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) criticised the government’s intervention as “late and insufficient”. During the night, it had urged the authorities to send water bombers, saying fighting the blaze from the ground was “not enough”.
The public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation into the cause of the fire, according to Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the fire started late on Thursday in an area 30km (18 miles) south of Diyarbakir and quickly spread due to strong winds, affecting five villages.
Meanwhile, across the country in northwestern Turkey, firefighters were battling to contain a wildfire near the town of Ayvacik in Canakkale province, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
No one was hurt but authorities evacuated the small village of Camkoy as a precaution, the agency reported.
It was one of several wildfires to have erupted in the province of Canakkale in the past week amid high winds and scorching summer temperatures.
Turkey has experienced 74 wildfires so far this year, which have ravaged 12,910 hectares (31,900 acres) of land, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
