"The body was found in a bush fire, we are not sure of the cause of death yet, but we put it in connection with the fire," Asle Karoliussen, police chief in Luster, on the Sognefjord 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Oslo, told AFP.

Earlier Monday the inhabitants of the village of Sandbekk, on Norway's southwestern coast and some 80 kilometers south of Stavanger, were evacuated as a forest fire out of control there was threatening to destroy their homes.

"It's burning fiercely, we have control over the houses, but it's dry and windy, and this doesn't make it easier for us," said Tormod Rostoel, head of operations at Rogaland Police District.

According to local fire chief Atle Mydland, over a dozen houses were in danger of being engulfed by the flames.

Over 60 firefighters from nearby municipalities, as well as two helicopters and dozens of volunteers were fighting the fire that so far has singed over 20 square kilometers (eight square miles) of bush and forests.

In a normal year, the Norwegian fjord district receives between two and three meters (six to nine feet) of rainfall, and its capital Bergen is marketed as one of the wettest cities on the planet.

But a winter with little snow and unseasonably warm weather over the weekend have made the bush and forests tinder dry.

SPACE.WIRE