Batemans Bay: With the bushfires likely to surge out of control this weekend, Australian authorities on Friday urged its citizens in parts of the eastern states of Victoria and New South Wales to flee. Victoria has declared a state of disaster across areas home to about 100,000 people.
A number of fires burnt out of control in South Australia as temperatures topped 40 degrees C across much of the state and strong winds fanned flames.
"If they value their safety they must leave," Michael Grainger of the state's police emergency responders told reporters. "I'd suggest personal belongings are of very, very little value in these circumstances.
"These are dire circumstances, there is no doubt."
At the summer holiday peak, authorities have advised tens of thousands of holidaymakers and residents to leave national parks and tourist areas on the south coast of New South Wales, where a week-long state of emergency has been called.
A death confirmed on Friday takes the state's toll this week to eight. Two people have died in Victoria, and 28 are unaccounted for.
In Victoria, naval vessels Choules and Sycamore started evacuations of about a quarter of the 4,000 people stranded on a beach in the isolated town of Mallacoota.
With roads blocked, sea transport and some airlifts are the only way out of the stricken town, although heavy smoke prevented flights on Friday.
People in the fire-devastated New South Wales town of Cobargo angrily confronted Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a visit on Thursday, with one shouting that the leader should be "ashamed of himself" and had "left the country to burn".
Morrison's conservative government has long drawn criticism for not doing enough to battle climate change as a cause of Australia's savage drought and fires.
This season's fires have scorched more than 5.25 million hectares (13 million acres) of bushland, with 1,365 homes destroyed in New South Wales alone, including 449 this week on the south coast.
Weather officials on Friday rated the danger from fire "very high" to "extreme" in most districts in South Australia, with a similar outlook for New South Wales and Victoria on Saturday.
Thousands of people had already been evacuated from East Gippsland in Victoria, one of the largest such exercises since more than 35,000 people evacuated from the northern city of Darwin in the aftermath of cyclone Tracy in 1974.
A contingent of 39 firefighters from North America arrived in Melbourne this week, taking to almost 100 the number of U.S. and Canadians helping to tackle the crisis.
New Zealand will send 22 more firefighters to Australia next week, adding to 157 sent since October.
Morrison blamed a three-year drought and lack of hazard reduction for the unprecedented extent and duration of the bushfires.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world was "not winning" the race to tackle global warming.
Modi offers India's "unstinted support"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday had a telephonic conversation with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison and expressed heartfelt condolences on behalf of all Indians on the damage to life and property due to severe and prolonged bush fires there.
He also offered India's "unstinted support" to Australia and its people, "who are bravely facing this unprecedented natural calamity", according to a statement by the External Affairs Ministry.
Expressing his satisfaction at the progress in bilateral relations in recent years, Modi reiterated India's commitment to strengthen its strategic partnership with Australia.
He stated that to this end, he looked forward to welcoming Morrison in India on a state visit at a mutually convenient time later in the year, the statement said.
Morrison called off his four-day visit to India from January 13 due to the devastating bush fires in several parts of his country, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
Morrison said he was inclined not to proceed with plans for a January 13 visit to India because of the fires, following which he was to have visited Japan.
(With inputs from agencies)
