Firefighters in Chile are battling wildfires that have killed at least 46 people and led to a state of emergency.

Beachgoers on Via del Mar try their best to ignore the darkening skies caused by smoke from nearby forest fires. Photo: MARTIN THOMAS/AP

Chilean firefighters continued to battle fast-moving wildfires on Sunday as the death toll from the emergency rose to 46.

At least 200 people remain missing in Viña del Mar, a coastal city northwest of Santiago.

A dozen fires broke out on Friday, mostly concentrated in the region and in Valparaiso, another tourist area, where they have destroyed thousands of hectares of forest, shrouded coastal towns in a thick haze of gray smoke and forced people to flee their homes. .

“We have preliminary information that several people have died, about 10,” said Sofia Gonzalez Cortez, state spokeswoman for the central region of Valparaiso.

Residents push a car away from a burning forest fire that has engulfed houses in Villa Alemana, Valparaiso Photo: AP

In the towns of Estrella and Navidad, southwest of the capital Santiago, fires have killed about 30 people. houses and forced evacuation near the surfing resort of Pichilemu.

«I've never seen anything like this,» Yvonne Guzman, 63, told AFP. As the flames began to approach her home in Kilpieu, she fled with her elderly mother but found herself stuck in traffic for several hours.

“It's very sad because we evacuated the house but we can't move forward. All these people are trying to get out and can’t move,” she said.

Viewers see a large plume of smoke from a forest fire in Valparaiso Photo: ANADOLU

On Friday, Chilean President Gabriel Borich issued a decree declaring a “state of emergency due to the disaster in order to have all the necessary resources” to fight the fires.

“All forces are involved in the fight against forest fires. «, he said.

Emergency services were due to meet this morning to assess the situation.

Residents are being evacuated from Valparaiso, which was heavily damaged by fires. Photo: ANADOLU

About 7,000 hectares have already burned in Valparaiso alone, according to Conaf, Chile's national forestry authority, which called the fires «extreme.»

Images taken by trapped motorists have gone viral on the Internet, showing the burning mountains at the end of the famous Highway 68, the road used by thousands of tourists to reach the beaches of the Pacific coast.

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Authorities closed the road linking Valparaiso with Santiago on Friday because a huge mushroom cloud of smoke “impaired visibility.”