Mob lynches man suspected of starting fires in Algeria

President says 22 people arrested in connection with fires raging in the mountainous Kabylie region

Smoke rises from a wildfire in the hills of the Kabylie region, east of the capital Algiers, Algeria.

At least 69 people have died in raging wildfires in the North African country.

Firefighters and locals have battled blazes amid blistering temperatures and tinder-dry conditions.

Residents use branches in a desperate effort to halt the flames in the mountainous Tizi Ouzou area, east of Algiers.

The smouldering shell of a house near Tizi Ouzou, one of the most populous cities in Algeria's Kabylie region.

Firefighters use a hose to tackle a forest fire around Tizi Ouzou, in the Kabylie region.

A firefighter damps down the remains of a house caught in the path of a wildfire in Ain Al Hammam, Tizi Ouzou.

Algeria's interior minister has blamed some of the fires on arsonists.

A man saves medicines from a health centre, as residents flee from a village near Tizi Ouzou.

Medics grab what supplies they can before they flee a health centre near Tizi Ouzou as flames approach.

Searing temperatures and tinder-dry vegetation have made the area vulnerable to wildfires.

A man looks on as smoke rises from a wildfire in the forested hills of the Kabylie region.

Charred trees near Tizi Ouzou.

Large areas of Algeria's woodlands have been destroyed in the devastating fires.

Villagers attempt to put out a wildfire in Achallam, Tizi Ouzou.

Achallam villagers try to halt the flames.

A man uses a hose to help quell the flames near Achallam.

Sheets of flame tower over a forest near the village of Beni Douala, near Tizi Ouzou.

A crowd gathers to watch as flames engulf woodland near the village of Beni Douala.

A crowd in Algeria beat to death a man they accused of involvement in setting deadly fires that the president said were largely the work of arsonists.

At least 90 people have died in fires that broke out on Monday, mainly in the North African country's Kabylie region.

Algeria's state prosecutor said it was investigating the lynching in Larbaa Nath Irathen, in the Tizi Ouzou district, one of the worst hit by the fires.

Video footage posted online on Wednesday showed a crowd beating to death Jamal Ben Ismail, 38, and setting him on fire.

The state prosecutor said those responsible "will receive a severe punishment", and that "odious crimes should not remain unpunished".

The Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights branded the killing as "barbaric and atrocious".

"Scenes of the lynching and torching of the suspected arsonist – a young artist who had come to help put out the fires – are shocking," the Algerian group said.

Ben Ismail's father, quoted by local media, called for calm as he urged the authorities to "shed light" on his son's death.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Thursday that 22 people had been arrested on suspicion of starting the fires.

"Some fires have been caused by high temperatures but criminal hands were behind most of them," Mr Tebboune said in a televised speech. "We have arrested 22 suspects, including 11 in Tizi Ouzou. Justice will perform its duty."

Algeria on Thursday began observing a three-day mourning period for those killed in the fires. The dead include 33 soldiers the army sent to help firefighters contain the fires.

"It's a disaster ... disaster. But our strength will not collapse," Mr Tebboune said, praising aid caravans from other provinces to provide affected regions with food, medicine and other donated material.

"We must preserve national unity ... I insist on national unity," he said.

As well as sending soldiers, the army has been using six helicopters to extinguish blazes. They are supported by two firefighting planes hired from the European Union and which have been in action since early on Thursday.

Two more planes will arrive from Spain on Friday and a third one from Switzerland in the next three days, Mr Tebboune said.

The fire service said its teams were still fighting 29 fires across 13 provinces, mostly in coastal regions east of the capital Algiers, with aircraft carrying out hundreds of missions to drop water on the fires.

Almost 7,500 firefighters, backed by planes from France and Spain as well Russian helicopters operated by the army, have managed to put out over 40 blazes in 24 hours.

The fires broke out amid record high temperatures in the Mediterranean region where other countries are also fighting wide-ranging fires, including neighbouring Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Turkey.