Wildfires sweep central Russia

Fanned by strong winds, raging fires ripped through woods and fields already scorched by the heatwave. The emergencies ministry said 866 square km, an area about the size of Berlin, was on fire in hundreds of peat and forest blazes.

"We don't know where to go," said Galina Shibanova, 52, standing outside the charred remains of her family home in the town of Maslovka in the Voronezh region, about 500 km (300 miles) south of Moscow.

"We called the emergency services, and not one person answered the phone," she said, adding that at least 50 homes had been destroyed.

A heatwave has engulfed European parts of Russia and Siberia since June, destroying crops and pushing thousands of farmers to the verge of bankruptcy.

In an indication of the seriousness of the situation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin canceled planned meetings in Moscow to fly to Nizhny Novgorod, where at least 540 homes were destroyed, for an emergency meeting with local officials.

Television pictures showed a crowd of women surrounding the prime minister, demanding to know if the government would pay to rebuild their houses. "Don't worry, don't worry," said Putin. "I promise you the village will be fully rebuilt."

One woman said: "We are very thankful to you." Putin then embraced her and kissed her on the cheek.

Nizhny Novgorod residents earlier fought flames with buckets of water as neighbors scrambled to rescue furniture from their burning houses.

One woman sat crying in an armchair, surrounded by her children's toys, as her house burned down in front of her. Another sat on a bench clutching religious icons saved from her burning house.

More than 1,100 homes were destroyed across central Russia, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. He said 238,000 people had been deployed to fight the fires.

State television channel Rossiya said 340 houses in a village in Nizhny Novgorod region were destroyed within 20 minutes.

Five people, including one firefighter, were killed overnight in Voronezh, an emergencies ministry official said. The general prosecutor's office said two men were killed in fires in Nizhny Novgorod and news agencies reported that a firefighter died in a blaze in the Moscow region.

Thousands were evacuated, including 900 patients from a hospital in Voronezh region that was threatened by the flames and 1,200 children from summer camps in Ryazan region, the emergencies ministry said.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Matthew Jones/David Stamp)