MOSCOW: Five people died in southern Russia after new forest fires broke out, a regional official told news agencies on Friday.

"According to our data, the bodies of five people were found in the fire. But this is preliminary information," the head of Volgograd region`s investigative committee, Mikhail Murzayev, told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The regional branch of the emergency ministry said in a statement earlier Friday that two people had died and 12 were injured as forest and brush fires flared up again, destroying more than 500 buildings.

BDST: 1628 HRS, September 03, 2010