AKIPRESS.COM - Hundreds of Mongolians, including firefighters, soldiers and local residents are still battling to extinguish steppe fires in eastern Mongolia, Xinhua reported citing local authorities on Wednesday.

The steppe fires broke out on Monday in the eastern Mongolian provinces of Dornod and Sukhbaatar, burning 560,000 hectares of land so far, the government's press office said in a statement.

Dry weather conditions and strong winds are hampering efforts to extinguish the steppe fires in Dornod's Khalkhgol soum and Sukhbaatar's Dariganga soum, it added.