A fire ripped through more than 170 buildings and killed one person in a southern coastal city called Oita in Japan on Wednesday, with military and firefighting helicopters scrambling to extinguish the country’s largest urban blaze in almost half a century.

Aerial footage from broadcasters showed houses r educed to rubble and thick plumes of smoke rising from the hilly Saganoseki district of Oita city, which overlooks a fishing harbour renowned for its premium Seki-brand mackerel.

The flames had also spread to nearby forested slopes and an uninhabited island more than one kilometre off the coast, likely due to strong winds, local media reported.

One Oita resident told the Japanese broadcaster NHK that the flames turned the city’s skies red. “The wind was strong. I never thought it wou

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