A mass rescue operation is underway as thousands of threatened residents and holidaymakers remain trapped by out-of-control bushfires burning across two states in Australia. 

Towns are running out of fuel and water, shops are selling out of basic supplies and fires raging across southern Australia are set to get worse by tomorrow.

 

The largest-ever relocation of people from the New South Wales South Coast is taking place.

Telecommunication lines and the internet are down in some isolated towns and communities have been told to boil water which may not be safe to drink.

Since the bushfire season started 17 Australians have been killed and 18 more are missing.

Daily Mail reports more than 1,400 homes have been destroyed across the country and 5 million hectares of land burned.

University of Sydney ecologists estimate almost 500 million animals have been killed by bushfires since September.

That number includes 8,000 koalas as well as other mammals, reptiles and birds.

[Source: Daily Mail]