Wildfires in South Korea have resulted in deaths, turned an ancient Buddhist temple into ashes and forced the evacuation of residents of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Uprecedented wildfires ripping through South Korea’s southern regions have destroyed large parts of an ancient Buddhist temple, ruining two of its three state-designated “treasures.”

A centuries-old Buddhist temple has been destroyed as South Korea struggles to contain ‘unprecedented’ wildfires ravaging the country’s southeast that have killed at least 18 people and threaten several UNESCO-listed heritage sites.