A Bulgarian official on Saturday called for stronger measures to prevent forest fires caused by human negligence.

Georgi Kostov, deputy minister of agriculture and food, made the call after statistics reveal fires had affected 5,000 hectares of forests in the country since the beginning of 2016, compared to 4,300 hectares throughout 2015.

"The increase suggests that we should seek better solutions," Kostov said.

Only five percent of the total number of forest fires in 2016 were not caused by human negligence, he said.

The size of forest in Bulgaria affected by fires annually in the last 10 years was 11,000 hectares, according to the official.

Though Bulgaria has legislation which sets out tough penalties for those who set on fire, it was difficult to find those who caused the fire,

said.

Therefore, prevention was the most important measure, he said.

Source : XINHUA