Illegal dwellings in the forests near the Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora are to be demolished as part of fire control measures.

The demolitions began on July 30 2007 and will continue over the coming days, Stara Zagora mayor Evgenii Zhelev said, as quoted by Focus news agency. The buildings are in the Lozenets district.

Some of the buildings marked for demolition are sheds. There are five to six larger buildings. The buildings are illegal and had been built without permission on state-owned land.

Some of the Roma families living in the houses were not officially registered as resident in Stara Zagora and therefore the municipality had no obligation towards them, Zhelev said.

Demolitions on July 30 had caused tension in the Roma community, Zhelev said.

There were more than 12 000 fires in Bulgaria in June and July 2007, causing a loss of millions of sq m of forests.