The area of wildfires in Russia's Ryazan Region has grown by nearly 2,100 acres in the last day, sweeping a total of 23,200 acres, according to emergency services on Tuesday.

"As of 03:00 GMT on Monday, the area of forest fires in the Ryazan Region spread to over 8,620 hectares, and by 07:00 GMT on Tuesday it spread over 9,470 hectares," the spokesperson said.

On Monday, the region declared a state of emergency.

The regional government said as quoted by Sputnik last week that a dry thunderstorm, a natural phenomenon that occurs in dry conditions and low humidity, sparked wildfires in the area.

The Federal Agency for Forestry (Rosleskhoz) blamed the region's forestry authorities for concealing the true scale of forest fires, which prevented the federal firefighting forces from being assembled in time.

Since early this year, approximately 4,000 forest fires covering approximately 270,000 hectares (around 1,040 square miles) have been reported on Russian territory, according to Russia's Emergencies Ministry. The majority have been concentrated in a few areas, including Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Kurgan, Omsk, and Tyumen.

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