A deadly wildfire that has killed at least 12 people in Spain's Almería province has stabilised, local authorities have said.
Since Saturday afternoon, calmer weather conditions, including lower winds and higher humidity, have helped firefighting crews as they have worked to bring the blaze under control, allowing them to secure much of the fire's perimeter.
"Good news. After some very tough days," fire crews have declared the fire to be stabilised, Juan Manuel Moreno, the head of the regional government of Andalusia, wrote in a post on X.
"The fire has been contained and its perimeter secured," he continued, adding: "We are therefore downgrading the alert to operational level 1, and the 1,000 people who had been evacuated are authorised to return home gradually."
The blaze is thought to have burned around 7,000 hectares across the area.
Authorities have confirmed that around 1,500 people who had been evacuated from the area are now allowed to return home.
Spain's Civil Guard has been inspecting homes in the region one by one. Of the 250 properties looked at so far in the affected area, the vast majority had not sustained significant damage as of Sunday at noon.
Authorities have kept the death toll at 12 and cautioned that the number of missing people remains uncertain until autopsies and the identification of recovered bodies are completed.
Officials have said many of the victims could be foreign nationals.
They suspect that the wildfire began on Thursday when a power line broke during an extreme heatwave that has pushed temperatures above 40°C in recent weeks.
