Investigators believe some bushfires ravaging the dry bushland may have been set deliberately, a conclusion prompting the prime minister to call such acts "mass murder."
Officials in Victoria state have launched arson investigations into some of the blazes, CNN said on its website.
"I think it's important that the nation braces itself for more bad news," said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. "This is a little horror which few of us anticipated."
“What do you say about anyone like that?" Rudd said. "There's no words to describe it, other than it's mass murder."
PA/PA
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