MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. The area of forest fires in Russia has increased by 20% in the past twenty-four hours to 10,000 hectares, with more than half of wildfires raging in the Trans-Baikal Territory in East Siberia, the aerial forest protection service Avialesokhrana reported on Wednesday.

"As of midnight Moscow time on June 8, a total of 65 forest fires were active in Russia on an area of 10,094 hectares, including 12 wildfires in forest areas on a territory of 5,789 hectares [the Trans-Baikal Territory]," the service said in a statement.

Apart from Trans-Baikal Territory, the largest area of wildfires was registered in the Republic of Buryatia in East Siberia where almost 2,200 hectares of land are ablaze.

More than 2,700 personnel have been involved in the fire-fighting effort. They have been able to extinguish 70 fire outbreaks on an area of over 1,500 hectares in the past twenty-four hours. Nevertheless, the fire has covered a distance of 3,100 hectares of forests over this time.

Emergency regime has been in effect in Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and in one district of the Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka Territories each due to wildfires.