The country’s largest blaze on record has left 27 dead and destroyed heritage sites, including two 1,000-year-old temples.

Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea on Thursday as fire crews struggled to contain the country's worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 27 people, forced at least 37,000 others to flee their homes and destroyed more than 300 structures.

A burnt vehicle, in which a village leader Kwon and his wife were found dead while they were on their way back to their village to rescue other people during a wildfire, lies on the side of a road, in Yeongyang,